Trial begins at BNS

A section of the U-19 level footballers who assembled at the Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday for the trial of the AFC U-19 Championship. PHOTO: STAR

More than 600 budding footballers turned up at the Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday, on the first day of Under-19 trial, with a dream of getting a place in the preliminary squad for the AFC U-19 Championship squad.
However, only 150 out of 568 players were lucky enough to be picked up by BFF coaching staff led by Dutch coach Rene Koster for the second day's trial while approximately 100 players failed to even take part due to exceeding the age limit.
“We have invited all the district football associations and football academies in and outside of Dhaka and the response of the juvenile players has been enthusiastic,” said BFF technical director BA Jubair Nipu.
Dutch duo Koster and Kees Kalk, along with the BFF coaching staff, selected the 150 booters through skill tests as the pitch at the BNS was divided into eight groups to complete the trial.
“Some 65 goalkeepers turned up in the trail and 11 have been selected from half of those goalkeepers today and the rest of them will be tested tomorrow,” informed Nipu adding that the number of the selected footballers would be cut down again on Sunday's trial.
It may be mentioned that the football's governing body had selected 27 U-18 booters for the BFF Academy at the presence of FIFA technical advisor Jean Michael Benezet last December and they are supposed to be the main priority for the trail but it was not sure whether all of those players took part in the trial.
“As far as I know, most of them participated in the trial but at the moment I can not confirm how many of them have been selected. We are not considering who is coming from where, rather the performance of the players in the trial is the main criterion for selection,” said Nipu.
Bangladesh were drawn along with last edition's runners-up Iraq, mighty Kuwait and Pakistan in Group C of the qualifying round of the AFC U-19 Championship, which will be held in Iraq from October 8-12. Bangladesh finished fourth among five teams in the last edition of the qualifying round which was held in Dhaka.