Naturalised Players: A new era in Bangladeshi Football
The naturalisation of foreign footballers and subsequent inclusion in national teams has been a familiar trend in international football. It's a trend that's finally about to catch up in Bangladesh, a trend that brings with it new hopes and concerns for football in Bangladesh.
Guinean striker Ismail Bangura, Ghanaian defender Samad Yousuf and Nigerian Kingsley Chibueze are the three players reportedly targeted by the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) to represent Bangladesh at the international level. This decision has been triggered by the lack of quality strikers in the national team's current pool of players. The players' inability to perform at a maximum level for the full 90 minutes, as seen in recent games, has also compelled the Federation and the management to look at these options.
Teams in the Middle East have done well in recent years and much of that owes to the mass naturalisation of Brazilian and African footballers since the early 2000s. According to FIFA regulations, a player must spend 5 years in residence in a country before being available for selection in the national squad. Most football fans will remember Portuguese midfielder Deco, who was born in Brazil but played international football for Portugal since 2003 after spending five years in various Portuguese clubs. In more recent times, Brazilian born Diego Costa opted to play for the Spanish national team instead of Brazil, having played in Spain since 2007.
While there are many who think this decision will eventually be harmful to our local footballers and discourage young players in the future, this may just prove to be the perfect solution for all our problems in the short term. The national team strikers haven't scored enough goals, and once they have scored, the team has looked tired and unfit in the latter part of games. The aforementioned foreign players have the capability to come up with answers for both these problems.
With the addition of these new players, the supporters can hope to see a better Bangladesh side on the pitch, and the BFF officials have eyed the FIFA World Cup 2018 qualifier match against Australia in September to field these new players. But there still remains concern about the fact that naturalised players will be occupying spots in the team that would otherwise go to local players, and if local players find it difficult to play for the national squad, it wouldn't mean good things for the motivation of whatever budding young talent we have rising up the ranks for Bangladesh.
The BFF have to be careful to not become over reliant on foreign players in the future, something that has already happened in our domestic leagues. Foreign strikers have consistently been top scorers in the Bangladesh Premier League, and local strikers have played second fiddle more often than not. The current predicament we are in is a result of that, and it is up to the federation and the club managements to ensure that local players, especially strikers, have enough opportunities to develop and flourish in the domestic league, and eventually replace naturalised players in the national team.
The decision to bring in foreign players into the mix for the national squad is commendable, but there are a lot of things that could go wrong with this, and concerned authorities need to make sure that they don't. Players like Ismail Bangura and Samad Yousuf could open the doors to a new era in Bangladeshi football, but we hope that this door doesn't remain open for any longer than necessary.
When he's not obsessing over football, Azmin spends his time devising ways of not getting mugged, only to fail miserably. Give him advice at fb.com/azminazran