Australia was one of 10 teams that competed at the 2017 Power Wheelchair World Cup held in the United States earlier this month and made it through to the semi-finals.

Karim won the MVP after some stunning performances, but what makes his accomplishments even more remarkable is that he was born with no arms and controls his specially made electric wheelchair with his left foot.

Powerchair Football is the only team sport in the world created exclusively for power wheelchair users.

It is played in 27 countries and governed by FIPFA, with A-League sides Western Sydney Wanderers, Sydney FC, Central Coast Mariners, Melbourne City, Brisbane Roar and Newcastle Jets all fielding teams

Karim’s journey in powerchair football began in 2009 but it was at the 2011 FIPFA World Cup in France where Karim’s story in the sport begins.

Rale Rasic & Emmanuel Petit with Abdulla Karim

After being knocked out of the tournament early the Australian was distraught, but the words of a French football legend inspired him.

“We lost to Canada 1-0 in the final two minutes and after the game I started crying,” he said to FourFourTwo.

“French World Cup winner Emmanuel Petit was there watching and he came up to me and wanted to know why I was crying. I said, ‘because I wanted to win the game for Australia.’

“Then he said, ‘no, no, no, there is nothing important in this life but you being here. Just enjoy it, it’s not all about winning’ and I just took it on from there.”

But when Australia faced Canada at the group stage of the 2017 FIPFA World Cup there was only one thought in Karim’s mind.

Photo: Jeff Walsh/Quarrie Sports Photography
 

“It was a revenge match,” he said.  “I scored four goals in a row from corners and Dimitri Liolio-Davis our team captain assisted with the first three.

“The other goal was assisted by Josh Merkas our vice-captain. It felt so great because like I said it was a revenge match for what happened in France in 2011.”

Australia then took on Japan in the quarter finals and at half-time it looked like Karim and the boys were down and out.

“We were losing 1-0 and we were so negative that our heads had dropped,” he said. 

“Then all of a sudden our coach Peter Turnbull and our assistant coach Robbie Wright, who is my Western Sydney Wanderers coach, pumped us up. Then after half-time we ended up with an 11-minute comeback and we won 2-1.