Sports Desk: Bashundhara Kings have created a new milestone in the country’s football history as they became the first club to win the Bangladesh Premier League title for four successive times on Friday.
The Bangladeshi giants achieved the feat when they registered a massive 6-4 goals victory over Sheikh Russel Krira Chakra in their 17th match of the ongoing 2022-23 edition at the Bashundhara Kings Arena to confirm the league title with three matches to spare.
Kings’ Brazilian forward Dorielton Gomes Nascimento scored four goals in the goal-galore encounter while captain Robson Robinho and youngster Shekh Morsalin added one each for the winning side.
Sheikh Russel’s Nigerian forward Kenneth Ikechukwu Ngwoke scored a brace while midfielders Dipok Roy and Sujon Biswas contributed one each during the thrilling BPL game.
Kings earlier clinched BPL titles in the seasons of 2018-19, 2020-21 and 2021-22 respectively. The season of 2019-20 was abandoned due to the Covid-19 outbreak.
Dhaka League — which is the predecessor of BPL — has been observing its 75th anniversary this year after its foundation in 1948 during the regime of Pakistan one year after the partition.
Apart from the Kings, only three clubs — Dhaka Wanderers Club, Dhaka Abahani Limited and Mohammedan Sporting Club — previously won hat-trick titles but no team was able to win the league four times in a row.
Kings needed only a victory to confirm the BPL title on Friday and Dorielton gave his side an early lead with a smart finish off a pass from Robson in the sixth minute.
However, Sheikh Russel, which recently suffered a 1-2 goals defeat to Kings in the Federation Cup third-place decider, made a superb comeback in the match with back-to-back goals from Sujon and Dipak within a span of 12 minutes.
Kings regained the command of the game with Robson and Morsalin’s stunners in the injury time before the break.
Both teams were more offensive during the second half and Dorielton completed his first hat-trick of the season and gave his side a 5-2 lead in the 65th minute.
The Brazilian, who is currently leading the scorers’ list with 18 goals, scored his fourth in the 76th minute to seal the fate of the game.
Sheikh Russel’s Kenneth, who earlier assisted Sujon, added a brace in between Dorielton’s last goal but these goals did nothing for the former champions except for reducing the losing margin.
Kings now have 46 points from 17 matches with the day’s win and extended their lead to 12 points after Dhaka Abahani were held to a 1-1 draw by Mohammedan Sporting Club in the day’s other match at the Shaheed Dhirendranath Datta Stadium in Cumilla.
In the day’s third game, Chattogram Abahoni beat Azampur Football Club Uttara by a 1-0 goal at the Rafiq Uddin Bhuiyan Stadium in Mymensingh.
Kings will play three remaining matches against Mohammedan SC, Sheikh Jamal DC and Dhaka Abahani on June 3, July 7 and 14 respectively. However, the results of these matches won’t make any impact on the leaderboard as Kings created a new landmark in the country’s football.
