Stars of Kabul A quick guide to the major forces in Afghan soccer. Top team Toofan Harirod FC Winners of the inaugural Roshan APL, and undefeated in all their matches, their run to the title and the $15,000 prize included a 10-0 semi-final victory over De Spinghar Bazan. Their star player Hamidullah Karimi scored nine goals in five games. Afghan national men’s team A decade after returning to international football, following a Taliban-imposed ban that ran until 2003, the Lions of Khorasan, as they’re known, enjoyed their best success in 2011, reaching the final of the 2011 South Asian Football Federation Championship.
Toofan Harirod player Hamidullah Karimi.
Afghan national women’s team With women’s rights in Afghanistan notably curtailed, 2012 was a remarkable year for a side that was only formed in 2007 and which can draw upon fewer than 30 domestic teams. They recorded their first official international victory in February last year with a 2-0 win over Qatar and then thumped Pakistan 4-0 in September’s South Asian Football Federation Championship. Star player Balal Arezou This 23-year-old striker plays in the third tier of Norwegian soccer with Asker Fotball. He moved to Norway as a refugee, one of a number of Afghan international players who were forced to move overseas. National coach Mohammad Yousef Kargar A sporting institution, Kargar was a national ski champion as a teenager before turning to soccer. He represented his country from 1976 to 1984. Subsequently he has been coach of the national side since 2008, overseeing its gradual rise up the FIFA rankings to its current but still lowly position of 186 in the world.
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