[3] On 14 August 2021 against a match against the Young Lions, Zaiful who was on the bench, refused to substitute with the playing goalkeeper, Zacharial Leong during half-time.

[5] Zaiful was unveiled as a Hougang United player on 17 January 2023 on the club's social medias.

Zaiful got his first international call up by Singapore's head coach Bernd Stange for friendlies against Bangladesh and Brunei on 30 May and 6 June 2015 respectively.

He finally collected his second cap for the Lions in a friendly against Fiji on 11 September 2018, replacing Hassan Sunny in the 60th minute.

[7] Zaiful then collected his 3rd cap and pulled off a series of stunning saves against Oman in the 2019 AIRMARINE Cup Final.

[8] Zaiful made his third appearance for the national team on 23 March 2019, against Oman in the finals of the 2019 AIRMARINE Cup.

In the opening match for the Lions against Myanmar, he was in the starting line up following first-choice Hassan Sunny's red card in the previous tournament.