National football coach Jamie Day is desperately looking for Bangladeshi-born European booters to get them included in the national squad.
Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF), meanwhile, has been inviting the interested Bangladeshi-born European footballers to join the national team’s trial for playing in the team combination.
Maintaining this same process, many of the footballers came here from Germany, England and other countries to join the national team’s trail although none of them could make their way into the national squad except for Jamal Bhuiyan, who hailed from Denmark.
While working on the report, The Independent approached Jamie, who has been working on the project to have players of Bangladesh-origin from the European countries.
The English coach nodded positively while joining talks over phone from London on Friday and said that his work was in progress and that he did already collect information of some 4/5 players.
When asked as to whether he located any player, Jamie replied, “We are in the process of talent-hunt. Of course, once we get any solid player, we’ll be able to give you the name.”
Replying to another query, he said, “We have already information of four to five players, who are citizens of England and Germany and capable of playing at any position.”
“We will look at four to five players only, who belong to the 23-year age group. However, all of them are nationals of England and Germany having capacity to play in any position,” added Jamie.
Meanwhile, it has been known from concerned sources that most of the booters who came from different European countries to join the national trial could not get accustomed to the condition (hot and humidity condition) of Bangladesh. Despite having required skills, they returned home.
But Jamal Bhuiyan remains one notable exception in this case. Now the captain of the national side, he is the lone survivor from among the inbound foreign crop of players. It’s widely said that his hard work paid him dividend in making inroad to the national side.
Although he could not get used to Bangladesh conditions during his first trial back in 2011, Jamal came again in 2013 and got selected rejoining the national trial that time.
Upon his joining the national team, he had to work harder to get familiar with the environment and had to struggle further to get used to the local food culture.
Finally, Jamal sealed his position in the national team while playing with some reputes. He also received some recognitions while also being made the captain of the national side – thereby making example for others.
