Jamal Bhuiyan and Anando Rahman, two of the three expatriates who found a place in the Bangladesh national football team preliminary squad ahead of the Saff Championship in Nepal, expressed their desire to represent Bangladesh in international level. Both Jamal and Anando from Denmark and Australia respectively arrived in Dhaka yesterday and attended the national team training in the evening.
This is Jamal’s second visit in the country as he earlier tried his luck two years back for the World Cup pre-qualifiers. However, he had to fly back as he was unable to provide the required documents.
The Bangladeshi born Danish midfielder, Jamal, who recently spent eight months in Philippines before returning to Denmark in May, revealed that he spoke with Rene Koster. “He spoke to me and said he would come. We agreed that he would watch me play in two matches, but later he couldn’t make it. I sent him a video of mine from youtube,” said the 24-year-old who is playing for Hellerup Ik, a Danish second division club.
During his stay in Philippines, Jamal said, “I didn’t train well. I worked and also had to study and do lot of school work.”
“It’s different,” he replied while he was asked to compare between Bangladesh and Denmark’s football leagues. “The league in Denmark may be ten times better than Bangladesh top division.
“I just want to play for the Bangladesh national team. I think its most kid’s dream to play for the country,” he said.
Jamal, however, did not live up to the hype and staged a poor training session Sunday and said, “I played one bad training and everybody was like ‘he can’t play here, it’s too hard for him.’ It’s the first time I trained here in Bangladesh. I don’t care if I know I’m good and I’m good.”
Anando, on the other hand, despite being a fresher in the camp, was confident of making it into the final squad.
“I believe in my ability and I can make it into the eleven and if I do it, I will give my best to do the best for my country.
“I want to represent my country. I love football and it was always my dream to represent Bangladesh. Our ranking is low. I want to see them in World Cup,” said the 20-year-old attacking midfielder from Australia. Anando said he scored nine goals and assisted 12 in his 24 appearances for Sydney University in the Australian second tier. He made contact with assistant coach Koster after finding his email address in BFF’s website and also sent his video footage.
Meanwhile, the other expatriate Reasat Khaton of Germany has not yet contacted with Bangladesh Football Federation regarding his arrival date.