Shahbaz Ahmed
Shahbaz Ahmad (Urdu: شہباز احمد) (born September 1, 1968 in Faisalabad) is a former field hockey player from Pakistan who is also known as Shahbaz Ahmad Sr. He is son of Mian Mohammad Hussain. He is considered to be among the best forwards in the history of field hockey. He joined the Pakistan National Hockey Team in 1986, and was captain of the national side, that led his team to the 1994 Men's Hockey World Cup victory. After the Atlanta Games in 1996, he played for Dutch club Oranje Zwart and for German club Harvestehuder THC from Hamburg for a couple of years.
Nicknamed The Maradona of Hockey he has represented Pakistan in the Champions Trophy tournaments held in 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989; 3rd Asia Cup, New Delhi 1989; 7th Hockey World Cup, 1990, Lahore, BMW Trophy Amsterdam, 1990, 11th Asian Games Beijing, 1990, 12th Champions Trophy, Melbourne and Hockey World Cup, Sydney, 1994. He made his world famous run down against Australia in the same tournament. " But in 1994, at the Sydney World Cup, in the pool match between Australia and Pakistan, Australia had a similar free hit just outside the Pakistan circle which was intercepted and moved onto Pakistan's Shahbaz who then executed his famous run with Australia's Ken Wark chasing him. Shahbaz drew a covering defender and reverse-sticked the ball to Kamran Ashraf, who scored."