Gohar Zaman (born December 15, 1979) is a Pakistani football manager and former footballer who played as a forward.

Club career

Zaman won National Football Championship thrice with Allied Bank Limited, winning the first title in 1997, and then consecutively in 1999 and 2000. He also won the National Football Challenge Cup four times with Allied Bank, winning in 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2002.

International career

In 1995, Zaman appeared for Pakistan under-23 team in the 1996 Summer Olympics qualifiers. He later featured for the Pakistan senior team in the 1996 AFC Asian Cup qualification. After the 1999 South Asian Games he played at the next 2000 AFC Asian Cup qualification. During the 2002 World Cup qualifiers he became the only Pakistani footballer to score a hat-trick in a World Cup match. He completed the hat-trick within 40 minutes against Sri Lanka in a 3–3 draw. Zaman retired in 2002, following a shin fracture against Hong Kong in the 2002 Asian games in Busan.

Managerial career

Following his retirement, Zaman completed AFC "C" and "B" Certificate Football Coaching courses at Lahore in 2002 and 2006 respectively. Later on, he attended several FIFA Special Coaching Courses under Jimmy Shoulder, Erich Rutemöller, Klaus Stark and George Kottan. In 2006, Zaman joined the coaching staff of the Pakistan under-14 team. Zaman was appointed as the assistant manager of the Pakistan national football team in 2007. He was also appointed as manager of the Pakistan national under-20 football team in 2009. In 2012, Gohar was dismissed from his position as assistant manager under the leadership of the Faisal Saleh Hayat, due to allegations of irresponsibility made by the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF). However, it was later discovered that the real reason for his dismissal was his refusal to hand over the salary he had received from the Asian Football Confederation's Aid-27 program to the PFF. Over the years, the PFF had been consistently reclaiming the salaries of coaches, received from the Asian football governing body, under the pretense of these funds being "donations" intended to support Pakistan football. Following the expulsion of Hayat by FIFA, he was assigned the assistant role again in 2019, for a tour in Malaysia under head coach Tariq Lutfi. Zaman coached WSTC at the 2023–24 PFF National Challenge Cup.

Career statistics

International

Honours