Sri Lanka's men's national football team, ranked 200th in the world, stunned Yemen with a 1-0 victory, marking the biggest upset of the November international break.
With almost 50 FIFA rankings separating the two sides, Sri Lanka's 1-0 defeat of Yemen was world football's biggest upset of the November international break.In an essentially empty Al Khor stadium in north-eastern Qatar, a long throw into the box was flicked onto a stooping Hingert, who nodded home to win the day. The 89th-minute goal was his first for Sri Lanka and the so-far crowning moment of the 34-year-old's fledgling international career.
It was only a friendly, but you could see what it meant to the Golden Army, as the men's national team is known. Hingert barely had time to wheel away in celebration before he was engulfed by an ecstatic cloud of teammates, bench-warmers and coaching staff alike. For much of its history, the world's 200th ranked national team (out of 210) has been little more than a footballing footnote, having never even come close to qualifying for a major international tournament. And in recent years, political instability in the country, a FIFA ban, and the COVID pandemic have stymied any potential development.It's a role he never anticipated being cast in, but one that means more than any he has played on a football field before. 'You're not just representing a city, a town, a state — you're representing the people of a whole country, it's a different kind of responsibility,' Hingert told ABC Sport.Born in London, he moved to Melbourne as a teenager and has gone on to play almost the entirety of his professional career in Queensland.But in 2020, an approach was made by then Sri Lanka manager Amir Alagic. Hingert's connection to Sri Lanka is through his father, who was born in the country and is of Burgher descent. Sri Lankan Burghers are a small ethnic group of mixed Dutch, Portuguese and Sri Lankan ancestry, many of whom now live in diaspora communities across the world. Hingert's father emigrated in the 60s, but his, and his son's, connection to the country has stayed stron
FOOTBALL UPSET INTERNATIONALBREAK SRI LANKA YEMEN
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