Saif SC reaping rewards of youth system
With eight days remaining to the close of players’ transfer window of Bangladesh Premier League, Saif Sporting Club on Wednesday completed their registration formalities by promoting 10 academy players to the senior squad.
Apart from their academy-nurtured players, the club retained the services of four national players -- midfielder Jamal Bhuiyan, defenders Rahmat Mia, Riyadul Hasan and Yeasin Arafat -- while signing up national team winger Arifur Rahman from Arambagh KS.
Out of the 10 young guns, five have already played for the Bangladesh under-19 team while Yeasin Arafat is playing for both the under-19 team and the senior team.
Saif SC is one of the two leading clubs who have been nursing youth squads over the last three years and have already started getting rewards from their youth academy, having significantly reduced expenditure of buying out players each season.
“In the last three years, we have been working with the young players relentlessly and now getting rewards from the academy. While other clubs are fighting to rope in players, we are banking on our own products. We have signed only two new players this season,” Saif SC managing director Naisuruddin Chowdhury told The Daily Star.
“We have perhaps spent approximately Tk 3 crore to buy local players, which is Tk 1.5 crore less than the last season and Tk 3 crore less than our first season. I believe the expenditure will decrease further in the next season because more young players are in the pipeline,” Chowdhury said, adding that they have been spending nearly Tk 1.2 crore for the youth team each year.
“If you compare our squad to the last season, our strength has increased by 40 percent because we now have five national players, who have been more or less playing in the starting eleven of the national team. We also have six players of the national under-19 team. The reserve-bench is also very strong,” Chowdhury said, adding that they will need two players along with five national players and four foreign players – Emery Bayisenge of Rwanda, Fayia Kobba of Siera Leone, Jahongir Ergashev of Tajikistan and Dainer Andres Cordoba of Colombia -- to form the playing eleven.
Saif SC finished fourth in their first two seasons in top-flight football and they are now looking forward to doing better under the guidance of Maldivian coach Mohammad Nizam.
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