Tournament for Pakistan in Bangladesh since his first game in the competition some 13 years earlier. He played all of the games helping the team progress to the semi-final stage of the competition against rivals India. In June 2019 Zesh Captained the team for the 2022 World Cup Qualifiers against Cambodia over two legs. Pakistan fell short of a place in the group stage of the competition with consecutive defeats in Phnom Penh and in Doha, this was his final game in an international shirt Controversy Rehman caused controversy in 2007 when in an interview with the British weekly newspaper the Eastern Eye he said that players of Asian descent should consider sticking to their roots rather than dreaming of playing for England. Rehman pointed to Michael Chopra and David Nugent, who both were top scorer in the Championship, but Nugent was called up for England while Chopra was not. Rehman claimed "Why wasn't (Chopra) picked ahead of Dave Nugent? He's the top goal scorer in the Championship but he can't get in (the England set-up). So he needs to maybe look at his decision and go play for India instead of hanging on to the dream of playing for England, because it's not going to happen, end of discussion." Personal life Rehman has said that, his "sole purpose in trying to be a success as a professional footballer is to inspire other Asian players to follow my lead and achieve their goals." He is an ambassador for the Asian Football Network (AFN), a grassroots community-led initiative designed to support and facilitate the development of grassroots Asian football in the UK. He has also worked with the Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) to try to increase the number of British Asians taking up a career in professional football, and has attended meetings with the PFA in order to achieve this goal. He has also been involved in the Show Racism the Red Card campaign and he has taken part in Chelsea's "Search for an Asian Star" campaign. On 12 July 2008, he took part in the Islam Expo event at the Olympia exhibition centre in West Kensington, London, a four-day event whose primary purpose was to build bridges between Britain's Muslim communities and the rest of society. Rehman took part in a panel giving feedback from his own experiences about the positive use of sport. In April 2008, Rehman appeared on