I remember this one match at the Bangabandhu National Stadium on a wintry Dhaka evening in 2017. I had moved to Bangladesh just over a month ago to ply my trade in the country's top-flight football for the relatively new Saif Sporting Club. The conditions on that day were probably one of the worst I have ever played in, but it was a crazy game of football.
In the Bangladesh domestic league, we sometimes had two back-to-back games on the same pitch. The first one was usually in the afternoon and the other one in the evening. There was a massive thunderstorm during the first game, and by the time our evening game came on, it was still raining, and the pitch was like a mud bath. It was bonkers – people slipping over, the ball not rolling, and you couldn't dribble at all. It's now a funny memory to have when I look back.
People are often bemused by my decision to leave England and have a stint in Bangladesh, of all places. I was looking for opportunities to play abroad. I had been playing in the lower professional leagues in England. I was in my late twenties, and I was just not going to make it to the Premier League. Realistically, I knew that I wasn't going to make it to the top in England, and I then just wanted to make the most of a football career. I thought I could see the world a little bit and have a good experience somewhere.
When I was with Wimbledon in League Two, then Ebbsfleet in the Conference and Conference South, I thought playing abroad could be quite cool. Around the time when I left full-time football earlier in the year with Ebbsfleet and went on loan to Hemel, I was looking to get a job or go down the coaching route – I was doing some coaching at Crystal Palace.
In all honesty, it was a case of ‘what am I doing with my life?' and then I spoke to a few people about going to play abroad. The right offer didn't actually come up, but it was definitely something that opened my eyes and I realised I wanted to do that. I wanted to go play full-time football somewhere abroad, get paid well for it, and have a completely different life experience, rather than get a job in an office.
I started exploring contacts around the globe beyond England, primarily in Asia, Australia, and the United States, about opportunities to go and play for a short period of time. I was firm on going abroad. I had already got my head around that. I had already played in the United States as a kid when I was about nineteen or twenty. I played for Crystal Palace's feeder club Crystal Palace Baltimore on loan for four months back then. I knew I wanted to do something similar again.
The English coach Ryan Northmore was the manager of Saif Sporting at the time. I had played against his team when he was managing in England, and we had been connected since then. He made the pitch for me to go and join him in Bangladesh.
“Dhaka is a bit of a crazy place, but I think you should check it out”, I remember him saying. I had a few other things lined up, but this one was going to begin almost right away. He asked me to visit Bangladesh the following week after our initial call because the second half of the season was about to start.