Zafar Iqbal (born 12 June 1956) is a former Indian field hockey player and captain of the India national team. Early life Zafar Iqbal was born on 12 June 1956 to Mohammed Shahabuddin Ahmed, a professor in the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), and Najmun Nisha, as the third of their five children. He was born in Hargawan, a village in Bihar Sharif, in the Indian State of Bihar. His family moved to Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh where he was brought up. Iqbal started out playing football as child, before taking to hockey in 1969–70 encouraged by his father's colleague and hockey enthusiast, Professor Khan. He was mentored by Swami Jagan Nath, hockey coach of the AMU during that time and manager of India national team during the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Alongside hockey, Iqbal pursued a degree in civil engineering from AMU graduating in 1978 securing 74 per cent marks. Professional career Iqbal was selected for the combined university trials after being selected on back of good performances during the inter-university games; Zafar playing for AMU. Iqbal good performances against the India national team which included scoring a goal against Leslie Fernandez prompted his selection to the national team for its tour of Netherlands in 1977. Iqbal till that point had always played in the left-in position, but was asked by coach Kishan Lal to play left-out because Surinder Singh Sodhi played in the former. Iqbal played at the Asian Games in 1978 at Bangkok and was the captain of the team at New Delhi in 1982, winning the silver medal in both. The crowning glory of his illustrious career in hockey came to him in 1980 when he represented India at the Moscow Olympics and brought home the gold medal after a long hiatus. Further, he had the honour of carrying the Indian Tricolour of the Indian squad at the opening ceremony of the Los Angeles Olympics 1984. He also won the bronze medal for the country at the Champion's Trophy 1982 in Holland and won many other tournaments against Pakistan, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand, West Germany and other European nations. Achievements His extraordinary game as “Left Out” in the Indian blue jersey with the number 11 embossed at the back is a glorious part of the history of Indian Hockey. After hanging his hockey sticks he immersed himself in coaching as the Chief National Coach, head Coach and National Selector