Matthew Abela is a 21-year old Maltese men’s singles player, who lives and practices at the Centre of Excellence in Holbæk, Denmark on daily basis. 

If you want to get to know Abela even better, you should continue reading and see what he answered on these four questions. 

At tournaments, when you are not in the venue playing or practicing. What do you like to do then?

- When I'm not playing or practising I enjoy visiting and exploring different places, I also like to try the local foods and different cuisines of the countries I am visiting. I have met a lot of amazing people during tournaments and it's always nice to catch up with friends that I don’t get to see so often. 

Read also: Get to know Imke Van Der Aar

If you were not playing badminton, what would you like to do?

- Well, I would love to try other different sports. But I would also like to focus on studying business and event management. I think this is a very interesting field so I would like to gain more knowledge there. Plus I have always enjoyed coaching so I would probably also be doing that. 

Playing a lot of tournaments can be quite expensive. How do you fund this?

- Luckily Badminton Malta & the Olympic Committee have helped me a lot during these last few years as they cover a large part of my tournaments’ expenses. Yobetit my sponsor has also helped me a lot financially. So I thank them all wholeheartedly. The rest of the tournaments I normally pay myself. 

If you had the chance to have dinner with any person in the world, who would it be?

- Steven Gerrard. I have been a Liverpool fan since I can remember and he is one person I admire a lot in the sporting world. I grew up watching him play football and loved his leadership skills and the passion he gave to his sport.