FBCOP blog

Awais Zahid was born in Faisalabad on 8th October, 1991. He has completed his education with an MBA degree in Marketing. Initially he was interested in swimming, but as he saw his Champion father, Zahid Maqbool play on the International circuit, his love for badminton increased. In 2006 , Awais started playing Badminton with his father, who taught him how to handle racket grips and footwork . However, his father had to dedicate time to business and work, thus Awais started receiving professional coaching from Moeed Ahmad .  In 2006 , Awais played his first ever Junior National Championship and came out as undefeated in Boy’s Doubles . 2 years later, he successfully defended his Junior National Boys’ doubles title and stood on the podium as 2nd best in Boys’ Singles .  In 2008 , Awais (representing ARMY ) pulled out his first major upset by beating Rizwan Azam (representing NATIONAL BANK ) in the National Championship (Team event). In the following year, he defended his...

Ghazala Siddique was born on 12th April 1995 in Zilah Bakhar. She did her Bachelors in Commerce (B.Com) from University of Lahore and also in Physical Education (Bs Hons) from Lahore college for women university. Ghazala was first introduced to professional badminton by her teacher, Ms Manzura , while she was at Government Girls Higher Secondary School, Samanabad, Lahore, at the age of just 16. Her parents were also in favour of that decision. When she started developing passion and interest in the game, she opted for professional guidance from Coach Tayyab Sohail .  She started training at LDA Sports Complex Samanabad , however, in her early days of Badminton, she was already into many other games, hence she could not pay much attention to Badminton. As Ghazala started witnessing her talent and capability of improvement, she chose to excel in it. In 2010 , she won both WS and WD at Inter-board championship representing Lahore board . Moreover, she dethroned the defending junio...

Salman Zafar was born on 9th September 1993 in Gujranwala. After graduating from University of Punjab , he completed his MS Health and Physical education from University of Central Punjab. Salman started Badminton in his late teenage when he was 18 years old. He trained professionally under Coach Akhtar Nani and Coach Nadeem Butt in Royal badminton club Gujranwala, Sonica badminton club Gujranwala and Star badminton club Gujranwala.   After seeking professional training, Salman started to play competitive badminton. In 2013, he qualified for the main round of the National championship held at New khan . He beat Ali Raza (Railway) in the first round and lost to former National Champion (MD), Waqas Ahmed (WAPDA), in the 2nd round of the respective tournament. In the same year, he clinched a gold medal in Men’s Singles in  Punjab games 2013. Moreover, he is the bronze medalist of National Games 2013 . He could not achieve this milestone without the guidance of his mentor, ...

Raja Zulkarnain Haider was born on 1st November 2002 in Gujrat main city. He has never failed to impress us on any competitive stage, be it domestic or international. In the early stages of his life, he had to bear the loss of his beloved father. The junior champion followed the footsteps of his elder brother, Raja Muhammad Hasnain , and entered his family game at the age of 10 .  He started off his career under the guidance of coach Malik Hamid Raza at City Badminton Club . A year later, after seeking professional training, he participated in an U-12 tournament in Lahore where he came out unbeaten in singles and as 2nd best in the doubles category. In 2014 Haider was selected in the Punjab team for Interprovincial tournament (U-14) and was crowned silver medalist along with his teammates.  As his brother saw the improvement and urge in Haider, he also showed interest in training him. The ‘Raja brothers’ wanted to be successful in the mission they were out for, i.e, to ...