The dream started in a small room, today the name of Pakistani businessman is on every ball of FIFA World Cup

FIFA World Cup 2026: There is currently a lot of excitement in the world about FIFA World Cup 2026. Many exciting matches have been played so far. Even though Pakistan is not participating in the FIFA World Cup. But behind every match and every goal in the World Cup, there is a story of a Pakistani businessman. The hand behind this ball is a civil engineer, who once worked in Pakistan Railways, who never dreamed that he would step into the world of football.

Story of Pakistan’s football factory

This is the story of Khawaja Masood Akhtar, who established Forward Sports Private Limited in 1991 with 20 employees and one room in Sialkot. Today, after 35 years, his company produces about 20.5 million footballs in a year, which are sold all over the world. Forward Sports Private Limited has manufactured the official match balls for the last 4 FIFA World Cups. Khawaja Masood’s company has manufactured the Brazuca for Brazil 2014, the Telstar 18 for Russia 2018, the Al Rihla for Qatar 2022 and now the Trionda ball for the 2026 tournament to be held in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Sialkot city of Pakistan produces about 70 percent of the soccer balls used globally. This city is also known as football factory. The tradition of making footballs in Sialkot is very old. What started here as a craft was repairing footballs. Today the factories of this city make about 3 lakh footballs every day. Official match balls of the FIFA World Cup have been produced in Sialkot since 1982.

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Leave your job and enter the world of football

After Khawaja Masood Akhtar graduated as a civil engineer, he worked for several years in Pakistan Railways. His uncle ran a sports goods business in Sialkot. In such a situation, he repeatedly asked Masood to enter this business. But it took a long time for Masood to take this decision. He said in an interview, “I never imagined that I would be making footballs. I had no experience in this industry, but I was technically minded and I had a close relationship with my uncle, so I accepted the challenge.”

In the beginning this journey was very difficult for him. Initially his company used to make 1 thousand footballs per month. But his luck changed in the year 1994, when he partnered with Adidas and today people all over the world know Forward Sports Private Limited.

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