Ali Ashfaq, Maldives footballer: Profile, Career, News & Videos

Ali Ashfaq is a Maldivian former professional footballer who played as a forward. Nicknamed \"Man of Steel\" (Dhivehi: ދަގަނޑޭ, romanized: Dhagandey), he is regarded as one of the best players in the South Asian region. A prolific and individualistic goalscorer, he is a free-kick specialist and a clinical finisher. His trademark style of scoring is beating the defenders and rounding off the keeper to score. He is considered as the best Maldivian footballer ever, most notably when he was named as the \"World's 2nd best top goal scorer\" in 2013 by IFFHS, and the \"AFC best goal-scorer of XXI century\" after 2023, with 476 top-level goals. He was also named as South Asia's Best Player in 2014 by a sports website called eultimate goal.

He is the first Maldivian footballer to play abroad, and the only player to win a title with a foreign club. In November 2003, Ashfaq was honored with the most prestigious awards a Maldivian footballer would get, in the age of 18 – Maldivian Footballer of the Year and Golden Boot Award in 2003 season. With Club Valencia, New Radiant, VB Sports Club and PDRM FA, he has won the Dhivehi League ten times, six Maldives FA Cups, four President's Cups, two Maldives Cup Winners' Cups, three Maldivian Charity Shields, two POMIS Cups and one Malaysia Premier League.

Ashfaq began his career with Club Valencia, where he played for five years. In 2001, he won his first trophy, Dhivehi League. He was crowned as the top scorer of Maldivian football season between 2003 and 2005 consecutively. In 2006, he signed for New Radiant and won several trophies, and he was named as Haveeru Best Footballer of the year in 2007. Ashfaq moved to Brunei's DPMM FC in October 2007, and he joined VB Sports Club after two months and stayed with them until 2011. He re-joined New Radiant in 2012, where he won all the domestic cups with in 2013 before moving to PDRM FA in 2014. In November 2014, Ashfaq won the Best Import Player Award in the Malaysia National Football Awards, for his outstanding performances during the season.

Ashfaq made his successes international debut for Maldives in December 2003 at the age of 18. He has since been capped 98 times, and is Maldives' all-time top scorer with 58 goals. He scored his first international goal in the 2006 FIFA World Cup qualifiers. In 2008, he won the Most Valuable Player award in 2008 SAFF Championship. He was among the Top 10 Players of Asia in 2008 and 2009. He also was shortlisted among the Top 10 Players to watch by ESPN in 2012. He became captain in 2009, and he led Maldives to the semi-finals at the 2009 SAFF Championship. In September 2013, he became the all-time top scorer of the SAFF Championship after scoring 10 goals in 2013, with 18 goals altogether. In May 2014, Ashfaq won his first medal as the captain of Maldives as they finished third in the 2014 AFC Challenge Cup. On 31 December 2015, Ashfaq concluded his last SAFF tournament from the semi-finals, remaining as the all-time top scorer of the SAFF Suzuki Cup with 20 goals. In March 2016, Ashfaq scored his 50th goal for Maldives.