Marcus Fernaldi Gideon

Marcus Fernaldi Gideon (born 9 March 1991) is an Indonesian badminton player who was formerly ranked world No. 1 in the men's doubles by the Badminton World Federation.

Gideon then returned to the court as an independent player paired with the Beijing 2008 gold medalist, Markis Kido.

Gideon was selected to join the national training centre in Cipayung, in the men's doubles team in 2010.

Partnered with Agripina Prima Rahmanto Putra, he won the 2011 Singapore and 2012 Iran International tournaments, and also finished as the runners-up in 2012 Vietnam and Osaka International.

Feeling disappointed with the Herry Iman Pierngadi decision in the sending players to the international tournaments, Gideon decided to leave the national training centre in 2013.

The duo reached the semi-finals at the 2013 Indonesian Masters Grand Prix Gold losing to national players Ronald Alexander and Selvanus Geh in straight games.

He captured his first Superseries title at the 2013 French Open with Kido, played from the qualification stage, and beat the seeded pairs in their journey to reach the men's doubles podium.

Gideon and Kido, reached the semi-finals at the 2014 All England Open, and then won their second title at the 2014 Indonesia Masters defeating Selvanus Geh and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo in the final with the rubber games.

Seeing his achievements with Markis Kido, Gideon was invited by PBSI to rejoin the national team.

In early 2015, head coach of the Indonesia national men's doubles juniors, Chafidz Yusuf, paired Gideon with Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo, because Selvanus Geh had to resign from the national team due to illness.

The new partnership opened the season in Europe playing at the All England and Swiss Open.

In England they reached the quarter-finals before falling to the Danish pair Mads Conrad-Petersen and Mads Pieler Kolding.

In Switzerland, he and Sukamuljo were stopped in the semi-finals by the Malaysian pair Goh V Shem and Tan Wee Kiong.

Gideon then took part in the Sudirman Cup held in Dongguan, China, where Indonesia settled for a bronze medal.

At the June SEA Games in Singapore, he helped his team win the gold medal, and in the individual men's doubles event, he and Sukamuljo captured the silver medal.

In July, Gideon and Sukamuljo competing as an unseeded pair in the Chinese Taipei Open, and the duo reached the final by defeating then World Champions Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan, but they failed to take the title, losing the final tamely to Fu Haifeng and Zhang Nan.

After this tournament, Indonesian badminton fans dub them as "the Minions" because of their below average height and for their fast and agile playing style, jumping and bouncing just like the Minions in the film Despicable Me.

The former badminton player who is currently a BWF commentator, Gillian Clark, also highlighted that the fast play shown by Gideon and Sukamuljo have taken the men's doubles game to a new level and makes the matches exciting to watch.

In the next tournament, the duo then reached the semi-finals of the Vietnam and Thailand Opens before capturing their first title together at the Chinese Taipei Masters in October where they beat Malaysia' Hoon Thien How and Lim Khim Wah in the finals.

In the Hong Kong Open, Gideon and Sukamuljo beat the World Championship silver medalists Liu Xiaolong and Qiu Zihan before losing to top seededed South Koreans Lee Yong-dae and Yoo Yeon-seong in the quarter-finals.

In December, they were stopped in the quarter-finals of the Indonesia Masters by second seeds Chai Biao and Hong Wei in three games.

They ended the 2015 season ranked 16th in the world.

Gideon and Sukamuljo started their 2016 tour by winning the Malaysia Masters in January.

Their performance continued to improve and they won the Superseries title in India and Australia, followed by the Superseries Premier title in China.

In May, Gideon participated in the Thomas Cup held in Kunshan, China, but he failed to contribute points to the Indonesian team during the Thomas Cup Group B tie against Thailand.

and was not selected to play in the knockout stage of the tournament between qualifying teams.

Here Indonesia won the silver medal, losing the final 2 matches to 3 against Denmark.

At the end of 2016, he and Sukamuljo reached the top 10 world ranking, and qualified to compete at the BWF Superseries Finals held in Dubai.

The duo failed to advance to the knock out stage after standing in the third position in the group stage, having won a match against their compatriots Angga Pratama and Ricky Karanda Suwardi, and losing two matches to Danish and Japanese pairs.

Nevertheless, at year's end Gideon and Sukamuljo occupied the number 2 position in the world rankings.

He won the 2017 All England Open with his current partner Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo.

He and Sukamuljo were recognized as one of the most outstanding players, and awarded as the BWF Best Male Players of the Year for two years in a row after collecting seven Superseries titles in 2017 and eight World Tour titles in 2018.

Gideon and Sukamuljo are often referred to as "the Minions" because of their below average height and for their fast and agile playing style, jumping and bouncing just like the Minions in the film Despicable Me.

Gillian Clark, a BWF commentator, stated that the fast play shown by Gideon and Sukamuljo have taken the men's doubles game to a new level and makes the matches more exciting to watch.

Gideon started his career in badminton at the Tangkas Jakarta club when he was 9 years old.

At the age of 13, he began playing professionally, and at the same time, he received a scholarship in Singapore.

Four months later in Singapore, he returned to Indonesia because of illness, and decided not to continue his education abroad.

He was again trained by his father, as a singles and doubles player.

Gideon won his first international title in the men's singles discipline at the Victorian International a Future Series event.

He plays for PB Jaya Raya, and has been a member of the club since June 2018.