By Ijaz Chaudhry
At the 2026 Asian Games, Pakistan won the bronze medal. Sufyan Khan, with 12 goals, finished as the joint top scorer
along with another dragflicker, Indian captain Harmanpreet Singh.
The boy from Bannu in KP was enrolled in the Lahore-based Dar Hockey Academy in 2020.
2022 saw him earning his first international cap. In 2024, Sufyan was named the FIH Rising Star of the Year. In fact, he created history by becoming the first Pakistani to win an FIH Annual Award in any category.
He is one of four players of this Pakistan team who graduated from the Dar Hockey Academy.
This academy is an assembly line of talent, whose players have been gaining selection for Pakistan's national and age group teams since 2009.
The other three are Hammad Anjum (Chichwatni, Sahiwal), Adeel Latif (Lahore) & Waqar Ali (Lahore).
Ijaz Chaudhry writes on hockey & other sports. For more about him & his work, visit http://www.sportscorrespondent.info