Sohail Abbas, (born 9 June 1977) is a former professional field hockey player from Pakistan who played as a Full-back. Regarded as one of the greatest players of all time he is the all-time second highest goal scorer in international field hockey and highest goal scorer in modern field hockey (artificial turf) with 348 international goals. A drag-flick specialist noted for his lethal flicks with great accuracy and speed in front of goal from penalty corners he is widely regarded as the 'King of the drag flick'.

Abbas started his professional career in Pakistan and played professional hockey in Malaysia, Netherlands, Germany and India in his career most notably for Dutch side HC Rotterdam. After representing Pakistan at junior levels Abbas made his international debut in the Test series against India in February 1998. He scored his first senior international goal in the second match of the series in a 2–1 win. Abbas has 315 caps for Pakistan and in which he scored 348 goals including 21 hat-tricks an international record. He has represented his country at 1998, 2002, 2006 and 2010 FIH Hockey World Cups and the 2000, 2004 and 2012 Summer Olympics being the top scorer for Pakistan at both the World Cups and Olympics.

Early life

Born at Karachi's Holy Family Hospital, Soldier Bazaar on 9 June 1977, Sohail is a former pupil of Karachi's Habib Public School, the school of many other hockey stars. In fact, it has been rightly remarked that hockey is taught as a subject in this school.

He came from a sporting family; his father, Syed Iftikhar Hussain, was a former first-class cricketer. He represented Karachi as well as Pak Crescent Club, famous for producing Zaheer Abbas. Abbas is eldest of three brothers. Raheel Abbas, his younger brother, is also former professional first-class cricketer. Sohail has often said that his inspiration came from his uncle, Safdar Abbas, a left-winger who represented Pakistan from 1973 to 1981 where he scored against Argentina during the 1973 World Cup as a 16-year-old boy. Abbas is keen to emphasize the part played by Safdar, who, Abbas says, inspired him as a youngster.

Club career

Domestic

HBL

Abbas started his professional senior career in his native Pakistan playing for his departmental team Habib Bank of his hometown Karachi in the Pakistan National Hockey Championship. Abbas helped his domestic team to reach the final of the National Championship in 2001.

SSGC and WAPDA

After a brief stunt with SSGC Abbas continued playing in the Pakistan domestic season but this time for WAPDA. In the season 2003 and 2004, he won the National Hockey Championship back to back with WAPDA as captain. He returned for his departmental team in Pakistan WAPDA from Netherlands in 2009. He was top scorer in the 2009 National Hockey Championship with 16 goals and in 2010 won the Hockey Asian Champions Club Cup. He continued playing for them in the domestic season until 2017 at the age of 40.

Abroad

Amsterdam HBC

Abbas's extraordinary talent and goal scoring prowess mean that he is a target of hockey clubs all over the world. He joined Dutch club Amsterdam HBC in 1999 playing the 1999-2000 season for them where he reached the semifinals, due to his commitments with the Pakistan team, Abbas only played for nine weeks and that too in two spells. He was provided with free lodging and boarding, offered a car and paid as much as 700 dollars per match.

Malaysia and Germany

In December 2002 he joined the Kuala Lumpur based side BS Nasional HC in Malaysia with whom he won the TNB Cup, the domestic cup competition and in April 2003 he played a season in the top division of Germany in the 1.Bundesliga for Harvestehuder THC of Hamburg.

Hyderabad Sultans

In 2005 he played in the inaugural season of Indian Premier Hockey League for Hyderabad Sultans. He was the star attraction of the tournament and his team won the title.

Rotterdam HC

In May 2005 he made his second stint in the Netherlands after HC Rotterdam signed him for the promotion-relegation play-offs. He scored in his debut for the club as his team won the promotion to the First Division for the following season. Abbas finished as top scorer for his club with 20 goals in the 2005-06 season but his team failed to reach the finals. He again finished as top scorer for Rotterdam with 22 goals in 2006-07 season helping his team finish third and securing qualification for the inaugural season of the Euro Hockey League. In 2007–08 season his team finished third both in the Hoofdklasse and in the 2007-08 Euro Hockey League where he was joint top scorer with 7 goals.

According to Abbas playing in Netherlands with Rotterdam introduced him to different style of play and technique which added to a lot to his game. During the 2005-06 as Pakistan was hit with a devastating earthquake Abbas started a fund raising mission with the approval of his club and Rotterdam city council for the victims of the tragedy. He organized friendly matches between Dutch and international sides composed of international players from Australia, Germany, and India who were also playing professional hockey in Netherlands to raise funds that were to be directly transferred to the affected region through international relief organizations.

Hong Kong

In 2013 Abbas signed for Punjab Sports Club to play in the semi-professional Hong Kong premier league for a season.

International career

Youth teams

As a young hockey player, his potential was not realized for some time. He had difficulty making an impact on the professional hockey leagues between 1995 and 1998. Like many Pakistani hockey players, he is a product of the Pakistan Junior Squad. An impressive performance in the 18th Junior National Hockey U18 Championship at Quetta 1995 gained him a place in Pakistan Junior squad which drew their home series 2–2 against Germany Juniors. He was not selected for the tour of Netherlands, Germany and Poland, playing next for Pakistan in the third Junior Asia Cup at Singapore in 1996. He staged a return to the Pakistan Junior side in 1997, a side which beat Germany Junior in four consecutive test matches.

Four months later, he was dropped from the Pakistan Junior squad. Pakistan Junior team manager Samiullah Khan and coach Ayaz Mahmood were not convinced to include him for the 1997 World Cup staged in Milton Keynes - an underwhelming squad that failed to making it to the Junior World Cup semi-finals for the first time in the cup's 25-year history. Finally, he made his debut the following year on the national team and has since become arguably modern hockey's most prolific goalscorer of all time.

National debut

When he made his international debut during the 20th Pakistan-India series 1998, his role was only to come from the bench for penalty corner drills. His debut was at Peshawar's Lala S.M. Ayub Hockey Stadium on Saturday, 28 February 1998. Pakistan manager effected a substitution midway through the tie, but failed to make an impact. He failed to score in three penalty corners as Pakistan won 4–1. The following day, on 1 March 1998, in the second test at Rawalpindi's Army Hockey Stadium, Abbas announced his arrival on the international scene in dramatic fashion, scoring a drag flick from a penalty corner which proved to be the match-winner in Pakistan's 2–1 victory.

When the rule was changed after the 1998 World Cup, he was not considered for the 1998 Commonwealth Games by coach Shahnaz Sheikh. But he staged a comeback to win silver in 1998 Hockey Champions Trophy in Lahore and bronze at the 1998 Bangkok Asian Games. Abbas struck 20 goals in 1998.

Player profile

Sohail can easily be regarded as the best short corner expert in world hockey. Argentina's Jorge Lombi and Netherlands's Taeke Taekema are second in line. He is a natural short corner expert with a very strong wrist, a powerful drag flick and a perfected dummy "body dodge" action. He was Pakistani candidate for the FIH Player of the Year award in 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003 and 2004.

Time spent in Netherlands him tone his skills and he pays warm tribute to the club boss Jons Hanset, who helped make his stay enjoyable.

Twelve goals in 5 matches and helped his team qualify for the play-offs was no mean feat and he has no hesitation in stating that Netherlands remains his favorite country to visit. Close to his mother, he describes her as "my greatest supporter. I credit her with all I have achieved."

Many of Sohail's contemporaries were in awe of his performances. Former India goal keeper, Jude Menezes recalls that Abbas was so confident of his ability that he could tell his opposing number which section of the goal he would target, and still make the shot.

Records

Sohail Abbas holds the following records in field hockey:

WORLD RECORDS:

• Highest goals scorer in modern field hockey with 348 goals.
• Highest number of goals in modern field hockey in a calendar year: 60 goals in 1999
• Fastest to score 100 goals in modern international hockey: two years six months and 18 days.
• Fastest to score 200 goals in modern international hockey: five years five months and 16 days.
• Highest number of goals in a single edition of Asia Cup
• He has scored a record 21 modern field hockey international hat tricks including one double hat trick.

Career statistics

Club

International