Expatriate talents on BFF's agenda
While the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) is trying to naturalise foreign players in a bid to strengthen the national football team to get immediate results, expatriate footballers are showing their interest to be a part of the Bangladesh national team at different age-levels.
The BFF is yet to place the applications of naturalisation for the three foreign players to the home ministry, but three England-based Bangladeshi players have already sent their bio-datas to the game's governing body, showing a keen interest to play for the Bangladesh U-19 national team in the upcoming SAFF U-19 Championship and AFC U-19 Championship Qualifiers in August-September.
They are Akmal, Rabbi Islam and Rahim Uddin, who are all based in Cardiff.
"Of them, Akmal belongs to the U-21 age group, but Rabbi and Rahim are from the U-19 group. We want to have all of them, though Rabbi and Rahim are expected to come to Bangladesh for trials," said coach Saiful Bari Titu yesterday.
BFF officials are constantly in touch with the Wales based trio, who don't have a Bangladeshi passport. And those booters have been told that the federation will start the procedure of getting their Bangladeshi passports, if they are selected for the national team at any level.
Rahim is very interested to take part in the Bangladesh U-19 team and has promised to come to Bangladesh after his probable trail at West Ham United.
Meanwhile, Denmark-based Jamal Bhuiyan is the lone expatriate member of the Bangladesh national football team, while Philippines-based Reasat Islam was once included for the national team for the Joint Qualifiers of the World Cup and Asian Cup this year.
Apart from Akmal, Rabbi and Rahim, the game's governing body has been looking for more expatriate booters and they have found some England-based talents like Hamza Chowdhury -- who is being monitored by big name clubs such as Chelsea, Manchester United and Barcelona -- Zidan Miah, a teenage midfielder, Jaki Baranshil, Simanta Ahmed, Yasin Talha, Raheem Fernandez, Ahmeduzzaman Onasis and Zaman Arik.
"Yes, we have found them through the internet and they are thought to be Bangladeshi-born players. We have yet to communicate with them, but we will do so, depending on whether they are interested to play for the Bangladesh national team at different levels," said Saiful Bari Titu.
Comments