Place of birth Brunei Number 11 Name Mohd Tarif Height 1.65 m Career start 2008 | Playing position Years Team Role Footballer Weight 57 kg | |
Full name Mohamad Najib bin Haji Tarif Date of birth (1988-02-05) 5 February 1988 (age 27) Current teams Brunei DPMM FC (#17 / Midfielder), Brunei national football team (Midfielder) | ||
Mohamad Najib bin Haji Tarif is a Bruneian footballer who plays for DPMM FC as a midfielder or left-sided full-back.
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Club career
Starting out with the likes of NBT FC and AM Gunners of the Brunei Premier League, Najib's performances at the 2012 Hassanal Bolkiah Trophy as team captain prompted a move from MS PDB to Brunei's only professional club, DPMM.
After appearing only seven times in the 2015 season, his club head coach Steve Kean advised him to switch to the left-back position for him to gain playing time (as he has done to Helmi Zambin and Aminuddin Zakwan Tahir). A season-ending injury to first-choice Sairol Sahari meant that he would be relied on much more heavily in 2016.
International career
Najib has played for Brunei Under-21 since 2005, and is the only player to have played in 4 Hassanal Bolkiah tournaments, winning the trophy in 2012. He regards his injury-time free-kick against Cambodia in that year's opening match as the best goal he has ever scored.
Najib scored in Brunei Under-23's first match against Timor-Leste at the 2011 SEA Games football tournament, but the team lost 1–2. He then played in all five matches as Brunei finished fifth in their group.
Najib's full international debut for the Wasps came in the 2008 AFC Challenge Cup qualification held in the Philippines where he played in all three games. He was also ever-present for Brunei's AFF Suzuki Cup qualifying campaigns in 2012 and 2014. For the 2016 edition he was deployed at left-back, but did not finish the game due to injury which would keep him out of the rest of the games.
Najib was in the list for the 2016 AFC Solidarity Cup but initially did not travel with the rest of the squad. Nevertheless, he recovered and made the starting lineup for the opening match, and kept his place at left-back for the whole tournament as Brunei finished in fourth place.
Team
International
Personal life
Najib has nine siblings, one of which is another footballer, younger brother Na'im.