Lyari’s aspiring footballers were left spellbound on Tuesday when for the first time a top-level foreign footballer, Ian Rush, visited the football-mad locality of Karachi. The former Liverpool star visited the Captain Emad Football Academy, meeting its players and offering them hope of a better footballing future in the country. “If we want to develop football, we need to coach the coaches and that’s what we will hope to do,” said Rush. “It’s good to see kids showing interest in football because this is the age where you can start learning,” he told the gathering. Hundreds of youngsters were on the ground to witness Rush’s visit, with the Liverpool legend shaking hands and giving hi-fives as he made his way to the academy. The players were equally excited to see a top level footballer among themselves. “I am lucky to be here today. It’s great opportunity for all of us to be here and see one of the legendary names in football world. It was highly motivating for me,” said an aspiring footballer Ali Baloch.
Rush is in Pakistan to produce a documentary using the Ian Rush Foundation, which will collaborate with the Oxford Creative Hub (OCH), an incubation centre based in Pakistan as well as Britain. The documentary will focus on tourism in Pakistan and also on grass-roots football in the country. Meanwhile, raising funds is also one of the motives of his visit which will then be provided to a local football charity. A football academy is also on the cards which would attract international coaches to train the future generation of Pakistan footballers.