Former boxer Abid Khan starts coaching after plight as auto driver goes viral

Abid Khan, the boxing coach-turned auto driver, whose video went viral on Twitter, is back to coaching. The former Chandigarh boxer is coaching children at a park near his EWS flat in Dhanas, Chandigarh. Khan’s story was brought to the limelight by Saurabh Duggal, an independent journalist, on his YouTube channel Sports Gaon. Popular personalities such as 2008 Beijing Olympics bronze medallist Vijender Singh, 2010 Commonwealth Games champion Manoj Kumar and Bollywood actor Farhan Akhtar shared the 60-year-old’s video. And this is what prompted Khan to start coaching again. “It’s the result of the motivation and support of all the sports lovers that I am coaching children in whatever way I can. In the past too, I wanted to pursue coaching but there was no motivation or support. Now I am glad that people have got to know about me and I want to show the same passion in coaching as I used to show while boxing in my younger days,” Khan was quoted as saying by Indian Express.

This is heartbreaking yet so inspiring to see how humbly this sportsperson has coped with unfulfilled ambition. Can you please share his contact details? @duggal_saurabh https://t.co/QNC0RvlQ7q

— Farhan Akhtar (@FarOutAkhtar) April 15, 2021

“It’s good to know that people like Vijender, Manoj and Farhan Akhtar have come to support me and when I get to talk with them, I will tell them that they will get to see champions from my coaching,” he added. A former diploma holder in coaching from the National Institute of Sports (NIS), Patiala, Khan revealed that he went to Saudi Arabia since he couldn’t find a job. And on return to India, he started to operate as an auto driver, and later as a driver-loader. “When I had started boxing, I thought it will help my family to improve our financial condition. When I completed the diploma from NIS, I tried a lot for a job but it was of no avail and I went to Saudi Arab for work. After my return, I plied my pick-up auto starting 2004 before the auto was scrapped and I had to work as a driver-loader in recent years. All these years made me believe that in this country, poor sports-persons only suffer,” Khan revealed.