Shafaq Ayubi, a sheep herder from Laghman district of Nangarhar, was last year’s assist leader for De Spinghar Bazan. He is only 20 years of age and plays forward for his team. Shafaq has only started playing soccer 5 years ago yet it is his second season in the RAPL.

Shafaq’s father had married twice and had 10 children, 8 sons and 2 daughters. This is nothing unusual in where he comes from. His family is huge football fans and motivates him to follow his passion. He says several of his brothers were very good at football but the RAPL was not there back then for them to showcase their talent otherwise they would have been on the national team by now.

Shafaq, like many of the other RAPL players, comes from very humble beginnings. His earliest memories are of him and his brothers taking their sheep and cows to the fields and only having Naan and onions to eat during lunch. They would travel from Laghman to Kabul each year during the summer because the weather would become scorching hot.

Shafaq Ayubi has graduated high school in Nangarhar and is in his 4th semester in Al-Taqwa University studying economics. He tries to stay as active as possible when he is not in university. In addition to playing football, he also does taekwondo to stay in shape.

He is very modest and has simple ambitions when asked about his future. Since his mother passed away last year, He says he plans to fulfill every wish that she had of him. That includes finishing his studies and working at a bank. But first, he wants to see how far he can go with his football career.

The 2015 RAPL main event is set to kick-off on August 27th.