Mamunul, Faisal call it a day

Bangladesh men’s football team captain Mamunul Islam and veteran defender Waly Faisal have decided to retire from international football. The decision came after the national duo came to know about their exclusion from the final squad for Tuesday's AFC Asian Cup Qualifiers Play-off match against Bhutan. Bangladesh’s Belgian head coach Tom Saintfiet on Monday was set to announce the 23-man squad for Tuesday's vital match against Bhutan. He excluded Mamunul, Waly, Nasiruddin Chowdhury, Pranatosh Kumar, Mohammad Nehal, Aminur Rahman Sajib and Sentu Chandra Sen. Mamunul, who trained with the national team on Sunday afternoon, said he felt insulted after hearing about his omission. The 28-year-old midfielder was also not in the final squad for the international friendly against Maldives on September 1 due to injury. In his prompt reaction to the media, Mamunul said, “It is not clear to me as to why I was not in the final squad. I'm fit now and did train with team in the last two days. I respect the coach’s decision but I still believe that I’m better than any young players. It’s better to say goodbye.” On the other hand, Saintfiet explained Mamunul's exclusion. “Mamunul is one of the best players of Bangladesh football. He has done a great job for the national team and I respect him. The only problem started two weeks ago when five players, including him, decided to leave the team and play for the [Bangladesh] Navy team,” said Saintfiet. He continued, “I cannot understand this. I have never in my life seen this. He returned from that game with an injury. He didn’t help his country with that. His replacement [Mohammad] Abdullah did very well and did exactly what I wanted. So my choice was whether to pick a player who went to play for Navy and got injured a bit. And I made my decision.”