As the FIFA World Cup 2026 draws to a close, conversations inevitably centre on tactics, star players and the team that will lift the trophy. Yet one of the tournament's most remarkable stories isn't about football at all; it's about manufacturing.

For the last 44 years, Sialkot has handcrafted footballs used on the world's biggest sporting stage, placing Pakistani craftsmanship at the heart of one of sport's most celebrated events. Today, this one city supplies 70% of the world’s footballs, supplying global brands including Nike, Adidas, Puma and Select, while contributing nearly USD 2.5 billion in annual exports—almost 10% of Pakistan's export base. Yet the bigger story is not the ball. It is how one Pakistani city became a global manufacturing powerhouse.

The story behind the rise of Sialkot took years of persistence and devotion. Long before ‘startups’ became part of our business vocabulary, generations of entrepreneurs transformed family-run workshops into globally competitive enterprises, exporting sports goods, surgical instruments, leather products and engineering solutions to markets around the world. Even Pakistan's first privately funded international airport was not the result of circumstance; it was built because local businesses refused to let inadequate infrastructure stand in the way of global trade.

Throughout my career, I have often reflected on how different our entrepreneurial landscape might have looked if earlier generations of innovators had access to today's digital tools, structured mentorship, formal financing and institutional support. Many professionals of my generation built businesses through persistence and resilience because ecosystems that could systematically nurture innovation were still evolving.

Pakistan is home to more than five million small and medium-sized enterprises. Together, they generate around 40% of our GDP and........

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