Asyraff Zakaris: From Division Two's Golden Boot to the MPFL's Top Flight
Sixteen goals and a Golden Boot at twenty, then the steep climb into Division 1. For the young Kuching forward, the hardest lessons are only just beginning.
There are strikers who score goals and strikers who carry teams. At 20 years old, Asyraff Zakaris spent the 2025 MPFL Division 2 season doing both, and the numbers backed it up.
The forward from Kampung Nombor, Kuching, finished as the Division 2 top scorer with 16 goals, the standout individual contribution in a PFA Odin Sarawak campaign that mixed bright attacking moments with the growing pains of a young squad still finding its feet at national level.
Seven of those goals arrived in the space of two matches alone: four in a 5-5 draw against Pulau Pinang, then a composed hat-trick to seal a 4-2 win over Kelantan FT. His tally left nearest rival Fakhrurrozi Awang of Pahang Rangers FC B four goals adrift. For a striker playing in only his second season at this level, it was a Golden Boot performance.
Asyraff had come through the local circuits in Kuching, where he began playing futsal at the age of ten, before emerging as the team's top scorer in 2024 and earning the trust of head coach Mohd Faizal Bin Zamri as the focal point of an attack built almost entirely around players under 23.
PFA Odin made a deliberate choice that season: retain just 20 per cent of their experienced players, hand the rest to a new generation, and back them to develop. Asyraff was their clearest return on that investment.
Now, in 2026, the challenge is of a different order entirely. PFA Odin have stepped up to MPFL Division 1, and the gulf in quality is one the squad is working hard to bridge.
Through four circuits and seven matches, Asyraff has scored four goals, including the opener in a 2-2 draw with KL City on matchday one, a performance that earned him the match MVP award, but PFA Odin have managed just one win, with losses to Selangor, JDT and Pahang Rangers underlining the step up in class. A 10-1 defeat to JDT and a 9-1 reverse against Selangor have been the heaviest lessons.
Asyraff has drawn inspiration throughout from fellow Sarawakian Iskandar Harun, who forged a career at national level from similar beginnings, and from ex-Penang FA goalkeeper Mohd Faezwan, role models from home rather than afar. His own outlook remains straightforward. “I just focus on training, discipline, and giving my best in every match,” he told the Sarawak Tribune last season. “I follow the coach's strategy and try to learn from every mistake to keep improving.”
In Division 1, those mistakes come faster and the margins are tighter. But for a 20-year-old from Kuching with a Golden Boot already in the cabinet, the education has only just begun.
