Pride of Pakistan: Sohail Abbas

Sohail Abbas, who is known as the ultimate penalty corner specialist, holds the record for scoring most number of goals in field hockey with 348 goals to his name surpassing the Dutch great Paul Litjen.

Abbas, made his debut for Pakistan in 1998 during 7th Pakistan-India series as a defender. The 23-year old then, used to sit on the bench and only come on the field to take the penalty corner as he was the specialist of dragging and flicking the ball.

Later the rule changed of bringing substitute to take penalty corner and he had to miss out few tournaments. But, soon, he made his comeback in the team and steered Pakistan to win a Silver Medal in the 20th Champions Trophy and later a Bronze Medal in Asian Games of the same year.

Sohail Abbas, against India on 4 October 2004, equaled the record for most goals by an individual of Paul Litjen by scoring his 267th goal of his career. Just four days later, he scored his 268th goal and made his way into the record books for the highest number of goals.

The Pakistani fullback announced his retirement later in the year when he was only 27 years old. However, he returned to international hockey two years later and served Pakistan till 2012 before he was dropped and never got selected again.

Sohail Abbas’ glorious feats

Most individual goals: 348
Most goals in a calendar year: 60
Fastest to struck 100 goals
Fastest to struck 200 goals
Scored a double hat-trick and 21 hat-tricks

 

This article first appeared on ARY Sports