Ali Ashfaq (; born 6 September 1985) is a Maldivian professional footballer who plays as a forward for New Radiant and the Maldives national team. Nicknamed "Man of Steel" (), he is regarded as one of the best players in the South Asian region, and the literal undisputed greatest Maldivian footballer of all time. In fact, in 2013, he had the second-highest recorded goals in the world, only below Cristiano Ronaldo 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 is the player with most pokers scored in XXI Century. 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 over 100 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. 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.
Early life Ashfaq was born in Malé, the capital of Maldives, where he grew up with his mother and older brother Ahmed Ashfan. He reputedly showed a keen interest in football since a very young age, and preferred playing football to attending school. He was the captain Majeediyya School football team when they played in the Inter school Football Tournament those years. The local football team, Club Valencia, took an interest in him, and in 2001 joined Valencia and thus started his professional football career.
Club career
Club Valencia
2001–02: Beginning of club career
On 26 October 2001, Ashfaq played his very first match in 2001 POMIS Cup tournament against Thailand's BEC Tero Sasana FC, wearing the Club Valencia jersey for the very first time. Ashfaq got the opportunity in POMIS Cup, due to the three match suspension faced by Ali Umar. In that match, he created a wonderful chance to score a goal as he edged past two defenders and goalkeeper, but he left for Ali Shiham to score. Ashfaq scored his first goal for the club after beating the veteran sweeper Kappi and his powerless shot went into the left corner of the net in the second match of POMIS Cup as Valencia beat Victory Sports Club 1–0 on 30 October. In the semi-final, Ashfaq assisted Ali Shiham to score Valencia's first goal against FC Kochin of India. Valencia won the match by 2–0.
On 8 June 2002, Ashfaq netted his first goal of the season on their 5–0 win against Eagles. Ashfaq played his first international club tournament against Mohun Bagan of India in 2002–03 AFC Champions League qualification on 9 October 2002. In the first leg in Kolkata, Ashfaq leveled the game when Valenica was 2–1 down.
On 21 August 2002, the youngster claimed his first hat-trick against Veymandoo Zuvaanunge Gulhun. Ashfaq managed to score 12 goals in his first full season for Valencia.
2003–05: Best player award and top scorer for three consecutive years
In the 2003 season at Club Valencia with 36 goals by his side he ended the season with the Best Player of the Season Award.
On 6 April 2004, Ashfaq played his very first match in an AFC Cup tournament against Hong Kong's Happy Valley AA, scored both goals in a 2–1 win. However, Happy Valley won the second leg 3–1 on 21 April, Ashfaq scoring Valencia's goal.
He was the top scorer for three consecutive seasons, scoring 37 goals in 2004 and 34 in 2005. By the age of 20, he had scored 110 goals for Valencia.
New Radiant
For the 2006 season, Ashfaq joined New Radiant, who finished third place in the 2005 AFC Cup the previous year. In a team that included other notable players like Ibrahim Fazeel, Ali Umar, Sobah Mohamed and Ahmed Thoriq, Ashfaq could not maintain his high goal-scoring rate, and lost the Golden Boot to his teammate Fazeel. But he managed to score more than 40 goals during his time with the New Radiant. He played remarkably well and helped the Blues win many titles.
Brunei DPMM
In October 2007, Ashfaq moved to Brunei DPMM FC on a two-month contract, which competed in the Malaysia Super League. On 18 November, Ashfaq made his debut against Perak FA in the leagues. Ashfaq scored his first goal in their win over Negeri Sembilan by 5–1 win on 21 November. In January 2008, after 7 appearances in DPMM, he was transferred to the Maldivian VB Sports Club for a transfer fee of €13000. The Brunei side tried their best to hold the Maldivian striker but he chose to return to his homeland.
VB
He joined VB Sports Club, and became the captain. In his first season, he couldn't manage to show his best potential. But in the second season with VB, he returned to the stage, scoring 33 goals for the club, and played a major role in winning VB their first ever league title. In 2009, he was named Best Player of the Maldives for the third time, as well as top scorer. In 2010 season, due to numerous suspensions and injuries, he missed a big part of the season, but still managed to score 30 goals. It was the first year VB won the President's Cup. In the final, Ashfaq scored four goals in the 5–3 win over the local rivals Victory SC.all together he scored 464 goals in his carear
Ashfaq kicked off 2011 season with two goals in the Milo Charity Shield game against Victory on 13 February. Their first victory of the season came on 30 March, in Dhivehi League against New Radiant by 3–1, which Ashfaq managed to score once in the match. On 7 April, he scored a hat-trick against Club Eagles on their 9–0 win in the league. VB were the champions of 2011 Dhivehi League with 47 points while he scored 14 goals in the league. On 11 May, Ashfaq scored his only goal of 2011 AFC Cup against Sông Lam Nghệ An in Vietnam. VB didn't advance to the knock-out stage of the tournament that year. In FA Cup final, Ashfaq netted four times to help VB win the championship after beating Maziya by 6–4 on 31 October. In 2011 season, he scored 22 goals.
For his impressive performance throughout the season, Haveeru named Ashfaq as Maldivian footballer of the year, while he also received 2nd best player of the season award from the Football Association of Maldives.
Controversies
From mid-2010 there were rumors that Ashfaq was having problems with VB Sports Club, and had started to miss practice sessions. The rumors were not believed until 25 February 2011, when VB announced that Ashfaq had been stripped of the captaincy only a few days after the club had won the Milo Charity Shield. Ashfaq said, "After yesterday's practice I was informed that I am no longer the captain. Don't know the reason now. But after the last season, I suggested the club to give the armband to someone else. I told them I have been wearing it for the last three seasons and believed it's time for someone else to take the responsibility. But the club refused at that time and told that I should keep the band".
Ashfaq then went missing shortly before the team went to Indonesia for the 2011 AFC Cup opener against Sriwijaya F.C., and the club failed to locate him before their departure. According to Haveeru news, Ashfaq said later that his reason for not going was that he considered the club to have restricted his rights.
Return to New Radiant
2012 season
Ashfaq rejoined New Radiant on 19 December 2011, after being released by VB Sports Club. In season 2012, New Radiant faced VB in the first game of the league and Ashfaq managed to score a hat-trick against his former club. Ashfaq helped New Radiant win the league and qualify for the 2013 AFC Cup.
New Radiant also won the President's Cup title after beating Victory Sports Club on penalty shoot-out. Ashfaq netted just one goal in President's Cup, and he totally scored 22 goals for New Radiant in 2012.
2013: New Radiant's Invincibles
Ashfaq had a challenging, impressive but also one of the successful season with New Radiant in 2013. Ashfaq's first goal of the many came on his first game of the season. He scored the opener from the spot in the FA Charity Shield victory over Maziya by 3–1. On 5 March, New Radiant played Sun Hei SC of Hong Kong in the 2013 AFC Cup. Mohamed Umair scored the only goal for New Radiant from a good ball delivered by Ashfaq. New Radiant packed three points in home and departed to Indonesia on 12 March, for their second match in AFC Cup against Persibo Bojonegoro. Ashfaq scored five times against the Indonesian side.
On 1 May, Ashfaq scored a hat-trick against Persibo at home. He also scored his 300th career goal in the 80th minute from the spot in the same match. Ashfaq has managed to score in every AFC Cup that he participated, since 2004, becoming the top scorer of Maldives in the competition, also becoming the first Maldivian player to score five goals in two consecutive AFC Cup tournament. New Radiant beat Malaysia's Selangor by 2–0 in the extra time and qualified to the Round of 16. New Radiant was knocked out of the tournament after losing to the champions of 2012 AFC Cup, Kuwait SC from both legs in an aggregate of 12–2. Ashfaq scored 1 out of 2 goals against Kuwait SC after penetrating the defense line in the first leg in home.
New Radiant announced just before the President's Cup final that the club has decided not to renew the contract with Ashfaq as he wanted to play for a foreign club in 2014. For the last game of Ashfaq before departing to Malaysia's PDRM FA, many supporters were present at the National Stadium to bid farewell for the national captain. Ashfaq scored one last goal for New Radiant in the final minutes of the game. Maziya was defeated by a score of 4–2. Throughout the season, Ashfaq scored remarkable 44 goals for the blues and won the best player and top scorer award in that year. New Radiant finished the season with a 100% winning record.
PDRM
2014: MPL Champions and Best Foreign Player in Malaysia