- Ali Ashfaq is Maldives' all-time top international scorer with 53 goals
- Striker has scored 14 World Cup qualifying goals in an 18-year international career
- He recently returned to help the national team in their Qatar 2022 campaign
The Maldives are perhaps known globally for stunning coastal waters and luxury escapes. In the football realm, however, the island nation, with a population of less than half a million, remains an enigmatic force on the international stage.
It therefore came as a surprise when the South Asians were suddenly thrust into the global spotlight in 2013, when ace striker Ali Ashfaq was named the 'World's 2nd Best Top Goal Scorer' of the year by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS).
With only goals in international and major continental club competitions taken into consideration, Ashfaq, with 23 such goals that year, trailed global leader Cristiano Ronaldo by just two, but was five goals clear of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and eight clear of Lionel Messi.
For the first time in history, a player from Maldives was being compared to the world's top marksmen. The Maldives No7 managed to score 14 international goals that year, including a ten-goal haul as top-scorer at the 2013 SAFF Championship. At the club level, he struck nine times for New Radiant in the AFC Cup.
"It was indeed one of the best years of my career," the 34-year-old told FIFA.com. "To be mentioned in the same breath as those great players was unbelievable for me. It was achieved through hard work by not only me, but also the team-mates of the national team as well as New Radiant.
"At New Radiant, we had a great squad under an amazing manager in Velizar Popov. We won everything on the domestic front that year," continued Ashfaq, who scored an incredible 44 goals in all competitions for the club that season. "We won the league title with an unbeaten record and we reached the last-eight in the AFC Cup."
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