Bangladeshi youngster Shadhin set to train in Argentina
Every day is feeling like a year for the promising Bangladeshi footballer Minhajul Karim. If he could, he would take off right now. And why shouldn’t he feel restless, he has an opportunity to go to Argentina for training! Around 10 days ago, he sent all necessary documents to Delhi for a visa. He will board a flight right after he gets the visa and fly to his dreamland.
This talented age-level footballer from Bangladesh, who is better known to all as Shadhin, received an incredible opportunity almost out of the blue. Argentina’s third division team Club Atletico Villa San Carlos has sent him an invitation to train with them. The training duration is a month. If he can impress them, the club could choose to offer him a contract.
When he heard it first he couldn’t believe it. He is still in a haze, “I returned to my home in Jashore from Dhaka’s Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club during the Eid-ul-Fitr holidays. On my way to Jashore, I received a phone call from Sheikh Jamal’s Argentine trainer Ariel Colman. He said, ‘They liked you’. I then informed my mother, she started crying. Then I also started crying. My father also began to cry. It really is like a dream. I support Argentina, I watch Messi play. I never thought I would be able to go to that country.”
But now, his dream is really close to becoming a reality. Shadhin is eagerly waiting to receive his visa from Delhi and is apparently enjoying this wait as well, “When you enjoy waiting for something, it turns into a sweet experience. I have an opportunity to prepare myself mentally and physically during this period.”
He has also set an aim for himself. “I have an opportunity to go to Argentina. I want to uphold Bangladesh’s honour with my trial at the club, do something that makes them talk about me in the future. I want to sign a contract with a club and play over there.”
Ariel Colman is the person who has put Shadhin at the doorsteps of such an incredible opportunity. Colman first arrived in Bangladesh in 2005 alongside the national team’s Argentine coach Diego Cruciani to work as a trainer. Since then, Bangladesh has become his second home.
Currently he is working as the trainer for Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club. Shadhin caught his eyes during a friendly match at Jashore’s famous Shams-Ul-Huda Football Academy. Even before that, Sheikh Jamal had brought Shadhin to Dhaka in their camp. But in Dhaka Colman saw Shadhin only in training. He was impressed with Shadhin after watching him play at the Shams-Ul-Huda Football Academy.
Colman told Prothom Alo, “Shadhin plays on the right wing, he is a very good footballer. I sent his video to a few clubs in Argentina. Now he is going to a club in Buenos Aires. Club will pay for his food and accommodation. Shams-Ul-Huda Academy will pay the airfare. I will try to see that Shadhin gets into a third or fourth division team. I have already spoken with a club. Everything really depends on his performance. Hopefully he will get a visa next week. Then he could leave for Argentina by the end of this month.”
Shams-Ul-Huda played a huge part in orchestrating this incredible turn of events in Shadhin’s life. Radiant Pharmaceuticals Limited finances the academy. Its chairman Nasser Shahrear Zahedee is also the chairman of the academy. His father-in-law late Shams-Ul-Huda was a National Sports Award sports organiser from Jashore.
Shadhin, who is from the Nauda village in Jashore, joined the academy in 2016. Shadhin caught the eyes of the academy’s head coach Kazi Maruf in a local inter-school tournament where he played against Hamidpur Primary School. Later, Maruf brought him to the academy.
Maruf is proud of his pupil for earning such an incredible opportunity. “Colman was amazed after he saw out academy,” he said over the phone from Jashore. “He was here three days, he also conducted training. He told us you have four-five boys who can play in Europe. He asked if we will provide no-objection certificates if he contacts other clubs. After we gave him permission, Colman went ahead. Shadhin is getting to go to Argentina, we are all extremely happy.”
Shadhin has played for Bangladesh Under-14 team in the Super Mokh Cup in 2016. The following year, he took part in the Under-15 SAFF, in 2018 he played in the AFC U-17 tournament. In 2018, he scored two goals and made four assists for Dhaka Abahani in the youth club tournament.
In 2019, he played second division football for Dilkusha. In 2020, he played in the first division for Friend Social. In 2021, he scored six goals and made eight assists for Championship team Dhaka Wanderers. He hasn’t signed a contract with Shiekh Jamal yet. He is expected to sign one next season. Even before getting a taste of Dhaka’s top flight, Shadhin is setting sail to the country of Maradona and Messi.
*This report appeared in the print and online edition of Prothom Alo and has been rewritten in the English edition by Ashfaq-Ul-Alam Niloy