Bangladesh captain Jamal Bhuiyan said that the facilities in the country’s football have changed for the better in the span of his national team career.
“I think our chance is bigger this time because I said before that this team is a better side than the previous ones,” captain Jamal Bhuiyan said
Bangladesh football team’s captain Jamal Bhuiyan hoped that Bangladesh would beat Afghanistan tomorrow in both cricket and football, but hoped that the sports lovers would watch and support the football team.
Sol de Mayo will play their next match on September 9, while Jamal will be back in Bangladesh on Wednesday to join the camp for next month's FIFA friendlies against Afghanistan.
Bangladesh national football team's head coach Javier Cabrera has praised captain Jamal Bhuiyan's move to Argentine club football, calling it a good move for Bangladesh and the player.
Although the term of Jamal’s contract was not confirmed, Sol De Mayo informed that they would release Jamal for his national duty.
Bangladesh captain Jamal Bhuiyan has posted a picture of himself holding his Bangladesh jersey at the Argentine Football Association on his social media accounts a couple of hours ago, stoking further speculation whether he is indeed joining a third-tier Argentine club.
Jamal informed that he and two of his friends were invited to play a friendly match in Argentina but he is yet to make a decision.
The 33-year-old captain, who has worked under different foreign and local coaches and seen the ups and downs of the team, spoke elaborately regarding the difference from the previous campaigns to the recent one and what he feels should be the ideology for the team going forward. Excerpts of the interview, taken by The Daily Star’s Anisur Rahman, are as follows.
The 30-year-old goalkeeper spent 11 hours in the Bangladesh capital, with his itinerary featuring a visit to a digital business company office and a visit to the Prime Minister’s Office before his departure for the capital of West Bengal.
Javier Cabrera's troops are brimming with confidence, having secured a semifinal berth for the first time in 14 years in the regional football extravaganza. The booters now have their sights on the final -- which Bangladesh last reached almost two decades ago in Pakistan in 2005
Bangladesh have already achieved their SAFF Championship objective -- reaching the semifinal this edition. But following inspirational performances in the final two group games, against Maldives and Bhutan, Jamal Bhuiyan and Co. are now aiming to go even further as they take on Kuwait, arguably the toughest team in the tournament, in Saturday’s first semifinal at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium in Bengaluru.
This achievement is the outcome of hard work, said defender Tapu Barman.
Bangladesh head coach Javier Cabrera will make his last attempt to figure out the right combination and fine-tune playing eleven before the upcoming SAFF Championship when his charges take on hosts Cambodia in Phnom Penh today.
“Our first target is to qualify for the semifinals,” Jamal told reporters on Sunday during the reporting of the players of the preliminary squad, which will start training tomorrow at Bashundhara Kings Arena.
Bangladesh captain Jamal Bhuiyan was dropped from the starting eleven in the second FIFA friendly against Seychelles at Sylhet District Stadium on Tuesday.
“I am in touch with Sol de Mayo and I’m trying to go to Argentina in May,” Jamal told The Daily Star in Sylhet on Monday, ahead of the second FIFA friendly against Seychelles. “I don’t want to waste the opportunity to play in Argentina.”
Being an Asian nation, Bangladesh rarely get the opportunity to play international football matches against nations from outside the continent. Bangladesh are set to play against the East African nation Seychelles at the Sylhet District Stadium today which will only be their fifth encounter against a team from Africa.
It has more or less been clear that Seychelles national football squad are full of amateur booters who play at the weekend after managing their individual jobs but the fact that they earn nothing through the sport is perhaps a quite surprising to the football-loving people of Bangladesh, who are used to seeing the country's national booters being paid millions of takas per season.