\n<\/p>\n
N<\/span>olberto Solano has become accustomed to firsts. He was the first Peruvian to feature in the Premier League after he joined Newcastle in 1998, and the first to play in an FA Cup final the following year. In April 2001 he became the first Premier League player to be sent off by Mike Dean. Now, in the latest stop on a peripatetic coaching journey, the 50-year-old is hoping to lead Pakistan\u2019s men to their first Asian Cup.<\/p>\n After taking the lesser trodden path from Lima to Lahore, Solano faces crucial back-to-back qualifiers for the 2027 tournament against Afghanistan, beginning at home on Thursday. Then, in November and March, come visits from Syria and Myanmar, who won the reverse fixtures. Solano, who replaced the Englishman Stephen Constantine as Pakistan\u2019s head coach in July, is clear on his ambitions.<\/p>\n \u201cMy first step is that we have to be competitive and not [have] everybody thinking about playing against Pakistan: \u2018Three points in the pocket.\u2019 No! We will try to be very competitive. We have to face every challenge in front of us. We have these couple of games \u2013 we\u2019re working really hard to get Pakistan qualified for the Asian Cup. That will be fantastic for everyone.<\/p>\n <\/span>Nolberto Solano says he wants to stop other teams seeing a match against Pakistan as \u2018three points in the pocket\u2019.<\/span> Photograph: Haider Ali\/The Guardian<\/p>\n \u201cI would like to play like [J\u00fcrgen] Klopp, I like [Pep] Guardiola\u2019s style, but you need to be realistic. My philosophy is trying to build a very good team, very good team spirit. That\u2019s very important to survive, especially when you play in the high level \u2026 We want to work really hard and with all the issues we have got we have to be together. No excuses, Pakistan this, Pakistan that.\u201d<\/p>\n Those \u201cissues\u201d are very real. Pakistan has no domestic league structure and the elite facilities Solano has seen during his professional life are not there. In 2001, a private company proposed constructing football stadiums and starting a franchise league with tie-ups to English Premier League clubs. The former England striker Michael Owen acted as its ambassador. \u201cFootball Hoga<\/em>,\u201d \u2013 football will happen \u2013 Owen said in Urdu. But that project never fully materialised and perhaps \u201cFootball nehin hua<\/em>\u201d \u2013 football didn\u2019t happen \u2013 would be more appropriate.<\/p>\n None of this bothers Solano, who says he will select from Pakistan heritage players, mainly from England, Denmark and Norway, and by scouring Pakistan for homegrown talent.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you search a little bit, especially in England, there\u2019s a lot of young boys in League One and League Two in the under-21s, at teams like Blackburn Rovers and Mansfield. A lot of boys [have called or messaged, saying] they want to come to Pakistan. We will try to select the best players from around the world.<\/p>\n \u201cThe players who represent Pakistan always say the level of the football is really tough, especially in Asia. You have giant national teams around like South Korea, China, Australia, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar. So Pakistan needs to improve a lot to reach first, to get into this competition, and to try to compete. In Pakistan I hope the time is right so we can start working together. We like to use the phrase the people say here: \u2018Inshallah.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n <\/span>Nolberto Solano became the first Peruvian to play in the Premier League when he joined Newcastle in 1998.<\/span> Photograph: PA Images\/Alamy<\/p>\n Over the past four years Pakistan have incurred three Fifa suspensions, two for \u201cundue influence from third parties\u201d and a more recent one, lifted in March, related to concerns over \u201ca transparent election process\u201d. That has led to a wasted generation of talent. Solano, who has an initial one-year contract, says the positivity of Mohsin Gilani, the federation\u2019s president since May, convinced him to take a job he feels \u201cso proud\u201d to have been offered.<\/p>\n \u201cHe wants to change football in Pakistan,\u201d Solano says. \u201cOf course, everything takes a time, a few years, but at the same time he told me he has belief that Pakistan can be competitive in the short term because we have a lot of young talented players around the world. It\u2019s completely different, but I like the challenge. I like the belief, the people calling me, to trust me. We can do it. We will see what we can do in a year.\u201d<\/p>\n Solano\u2019s coaching career has taken in Peru, Canada, Sweden and England\u2019s non-league circuit (with Blyth Spartans) before this latest assignment. He wants the level of professionalism in Pakistan to improve and says that has to come from the top, with a domestic league a priority.<\/p>\n \u201cWe hear about Cambodia, Oman, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia \u2013 they go professionally. It\u2019s a lot of young [players] who I\u2019ve been training for two and a half months. You have a lot of good talent. But unfortunately, these young lads don\u2019t have the opportunity to became professional footballers. So it\u2019s very important to Pakistan to engage with the responsibility to give opportunity to these guys.\u201d<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Sign up to Football Daily<\/span><\/p>\n Kick off your evenings with the Guardian’s take on the world of football<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.<\/span><\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Solano\u2019s remit has included the Pakistan Under-23s, who played three games under his guidance in September. There was an 8-1 defeat against Iraq which Pakistan finished with nine men after a red card and an injury and during which Solano was sent off. Consecutive 1-0 defeats against Cambodia and Oman followed, representing something of an improvement. Solano and his Argentinian coach Jorge Casta\u00f1eira were impressed with the fitness of their players, who had no pre-season or lack club football.<\/p>\n Solano, a national hero in Peru and a legend on Tyneside, spends his time shuttling between Lahore and Islamabad. He speaks of the kindness of the people in Pakistan and has become accustomed to his anonymity there. He keeps an eye, too, on his beloved Newcastle and followed the Alexander Isak transfer saga with interest.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople loved him,\u201d Solano says of Isak at Newcastle. \u201cHe engaged very quickly into the club when he arrived. But I think he\u2019s probably said: \u2018OK, I\u2019m going to Liverpool. I want to win trophies. Maybe I\u2019ve got more chances to win trophies.\u2019 \u2026 So, we need to respect in that way.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/span>Nolberto Solano believes a domestic league is a priority in order to improve the level of professionalism in Pakistan.<\/span> Photograph: Haider Ali\/The Guardian<\/p>\n As Solano and his staff prepare for the Afghanistan games, they have put their Pakistan-based players through a short pre-season to get their level near to that of the squad members who will arrive from England and Scandinavia. Solano wants his players to express themselves on the ball and remain disciplined without it, \u201cbecause the only way you get results is to be solid \u2013 don\u2019t concede goals, and from there, anything can happen\u201d.<\/p>\n If Solano feels the weight of the expectation of a nation of more than 250 million people, he doesn\u2019t show it. There is talk of La Liga helping the PFF to start a league in Pakistan, where Atl\u00e9tico Madrid previously had a Lahore-based academy. Solano wants to build on the potential of Pakistan and also has an eye on his legacy.<\/p>\n \u201cWe will try to play good football, to enjoy. It\u2019s a massive responsibility for everyone, because we represent Pakistan. I\u2019m looking forward to working with the senior team, to see what we have. <\/strong>I would like to do something, something for the people, [so] when I leave Pakistan, people will remember me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Nolberto Solano has become accustomed to firsts. He was the first Peruvian to feature in the Premier League after he joined Newcastle in 1998, and the first to play in an FA Cup final the following year. In April 2001 he became the first Premier League player to be sent off by Mike Dean. Now,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26665,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[15979,15977,2658,15980,1544,15978],"class_list":{"0":"post-26664","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-klopp","9":"tag-nolberto","10":"tag-play","11":"tag-realistic","12":"tag-soccer","13":"tag-solano"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26664\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/26665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}