With an aim to retain the title, a 23-member Bangladesh U-15 national team is all set to fly for India on Monday to take part in the Saff U-15 Championship 2019 scheduled to be held in Kalyani city of Nadia district on August 21 to 31.
The captain’s armband is likely to be handed over to midfielder Md Rakibul Islam who was present along with the team’s British head coach Robert Martin Ryles during a press conference at the BFF House on Sunday.
A total of 34 players including 17 from the BKSP who aged below 16 have been going through a residential training camp at the new-founded BFF-Fortis football academy in Beraid for around four months. The selected 23 players were picked up from there.
“It was positive experience in Fortis with excellent facility and environments,” said Ryles. He added, “We focused hard in developing physical, technical and other aspects of the players who gave everything in the training we asked for. The boys showed resilience and improved their game day by day.”
Ryles, who was appointed as national youth coach in June this year, also informed that they played a number of practice matches against the youth sides of the premier league clubs and elder group of players in the academy to hone on the skills of his disciples.
Rakibul looked confident while talking about their target in the meet. “Our senior brothers became the champions in this tournament last year. Our first and only target will be to retain the championship and upheld the glory.”
Initiated as Saff U-16 Championship in 2011, the tournament was changed to U-15 from the fourth edition in 2017. Bangladesh first became champions in Sylhet in 2015 before claiming the title again in Nepal last year.
Only five teams will participate in the 2019 edition. Bangladesh will kick off the campaign against Bhutan on August 23 before taking on Sri Lanka, Nepal and India on August 25, 27 and 29 respectively. Top two finishers from the round-robin league will play the final on August 31.
