After a few rather quiet days in Islamabad, overseeing the Pakistan Under-23 team’s training camp, Nolberto Solano’s formal welcome to the country’s football fraternity took place in Lahore. It was a grand function arranged by the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) to celebrate his arrival.
There were moments there where the 50-year-old Peruvian would’ve felt like royalty; garlanded by all the attendees turn by turn, some tugging at him for a picture on a sweltering summer night. There was also a mini-ceremony where the former Newcastle United legend was sat on the stage and a sehrabandi — where a decorative headdress is tied — took place.
It made for awkward viewing, but Solano was unmoved. The newly appointed Pakistan senior and under-23 football coach is patient — and going by the events that took place, very tolerant. And Solano is also willing to play the long game — both literally and figuratively — to take Pakistan football to the top.
“We need to start somewhere,” Solano told Eos in an interview last week, hours before his official unveiling. “It can start with the qualifiers for the AFC [Asian Football Confederation] Under-23 Championship.”
Former Peruvian footballer Nolbert Solano has just taken over as Pakistan’s head coach. He says he will adapt his coaching style to the realities in the country. But perhaps, most importantly, he will need to demonstrate patience…
The September 3-9 qualifiers for next year’s continental tournament are Solano’s first assignment, with Pakistan due to face Iraq, Cambodia and Oman in Group ‘G’. “If we can somehow make it to the [tournament] finals, it could be the start of something new.”
Solano, however, understands lifting Pakistan football isn’t a sprint but a marathon, and he radiates an aura of certainty, a sense of security that he wouldn’t be judged immediately and that he has the backing of recently elected PFF president, Mohsen Gilani.
“Mohsen is a football person… he’s well-travelled and has worked in football development across the world,” says Solano. “He understands what needs to be built and how that needs to be done. When I spoke with him I could see his passion. He wants his country to do well and was very keen for me to come here because there is a lot of young talent here but we need to elevate them.”
How Solano manages to do that will be seen at the Under-23 qualifiers but, apart from that, he will be picking up from where his predecessor, Stephen Constantine, left off.
Constantine delivered perhaps Pakistan football’s greatest moment when, in October 2023, he guided the national team to their first-ever triumph in a World Cup qualifier. That historic victory over Cambodia saw Pakistan make it to the second round of qualifying for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which has brought regular competitive matches for the team.
Even though wins have been at a premium, this campaign is merely a learning curve for a side that had been plagued by a plethora of issues off the field, due to the decade-long institutional crisis in the PFF. Having lost all their matches in the second round of qualifying for the World Cup, Pakistan parachuted into the third qualifying round for the 2027 AFC Asian Cup, where they opened Group ‘E’ with back-to-back losses against Syria and Myanmar.
A home-and-away double-header against Afghanistan in October and qualifying for Asia’s premier tournament might be a long shot — only the group winners earn a spot at the finals in Saudi Arabia — Solano isn’t one for throwing in the towel.
“Sometimes you need to start in difficult conditions,” he says, not referring to the Asian Cup qualifiers but about the state of Pakistan football in general. “It will be tough, yes. But I believe we can do something. I believe in myself. It will not happen in a short period. It will take some time.”
The Pakistan job, he believes, came to him at the right time. As a coach, Solano hasn’t lasted a year in any of his past jobs since he left as assistant coach of the Peru national team.
During his stint with his home side, Solano achieved what he was unable to as a player: take Peru to the World Cup. In 2018, he was part of Ricardo Gareca’s coaching staff that saw Peru qualify for their first World Cup in 36 years.
Upon appointing Solano, Mohsen had highlighted that fact and also that never had Pakistan seen an ex-player of such calibre take over as coach. Solano, though, isn’t dwelling on his reputation as a player. He’s looking to make his mark as a coach.
“As a coach, I left my career as a football professional,” he reflected. “There are millions of coaches, asking for opportunities and, when you have them, you have to take them,” he adds, referring to him taking over as Pakistan coach. “When the initial contact was made, I looked up the history of Pakistan football and I know there have been some difficult times [in the recent past] but I’m a very positive person.”
That positivity is perhaps what the PFF felt it needed to re-energise the national team. The PFF has only recently emerged from a six-year period of “normalisation” and the crisis in the country’s football body prior to that had left the domestic structure in ruins.
Constantine had been vocal about the FIFA-appointed Normalisation Committee’s inability to kickstart domestic competitions, which he believed would give the local players a chance to play regularly.
Solano, though, for now is leaving the “PFF to sort out the issues.” In the meantime, he is willing to adapt not only how he manages his playing resources but also his philosophy as a coach.
“I’ve been living in England for the last 20 years, and I have a lot of friends from Pakistan and I know for a fact that there are a lot of diaspora players who want to represent the country,” he details. “We already have a number of diaspora players in the national team and we can look for more till the players here start to improve.
“We can’t forget about the ones here. But the good thing is that, with the local players, we can work more since they are all here. We have to give them the opportunity to get better.”
Solano is only the second South American coach to have been given the reins of the Pakistan national team, after Brazilian Jose Antonio Nogueira, who had a year-long stint in 2018. South American flair has always seemed to resonate with Pakistan’s football psyche and Solano is keen on bringing that to the national team.
“I want my players to express themselves,” Solano says, noting he will be tactically fluid with his team’s set-up according to the players’ strengths. “My idea is to have good discipline and enjoy having the ball. When you have the ball, you have more opportunity to score.
“I’m an adaptive coach. Once we have the team together, we will see the strengths of the players and the formations would be to maximise those. But the idea will be to play good football and get results.”
Only time will tell whether Solano is the man who makes Pakistan’s national team less pragmatic. It will require practice and, most importantly, patience. Solano, in his first few days as Pakistan coach, has already shown he has plenty of that.
The writer is Dawn’s Sports Editor.
X: @UmaidWasim
Published in Dawn, EOS, August 31st, 2025
