11 young Bangladeshi footballers set to train in Brazil

Young footballers on their way to train at the BKSPCollected

The ministry of youth and sports with the help of Brazil’s ambassador to Bangladesh Joao Tabajara de Oliveira Junior will send 11 promising young footballers from Bangladesh to Brazil for a two-month-long training camp in May.

This will be the second time a group of footballers from Bangladesh will be sent to Brazil for a training camp. Earlier in 2019, four young Bangladeshi footballers got the opportunity to receive training for one month under Brazil’s Sociedade Esportiva do Gama.

Due to Covid-19, this training programme got halted. But the initiative will resume from this year.

A goalkeeper, four defenders, three midfielders and three forwards have been picked for the programme. The players earned their tickets to Brazil after a lengthy selection process.

40 players were shortlisted from the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Under-17 tournament for a two-month-long training camp at the BKSP (Bangladesh Krira Shikkha Protishtan). The most promising 11 players from that camp were picked for the trip to Brazil.

Four additional players have been named as backups. If anyone of the originally selected 11 can’t make the trip due to illness or for any other reason, one of the backup players will take their place.

Highest three players from Habiganj are in the squad. All three of them come from the Barrister Sumon Football Academy in Chunarghat, Habiganj. “Three of us from the Chunarghat Barrister Sumon Academy have been selected. Other than me the other two are Shankar Bakti and Anik Debbarma. Everyone in the academy is extremely happy that we will get a chance to go to Brazil,” said the third selectee from Habiganj Roni Mia.

The players who took part in the two-month-long camp in BKSP. 11 of them will train in Brazil.
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The initiative first started from a promise made by the Brazil’s ambassador to Bangladesh in 2018. After seeing Brazil’s flags on rooftops everywhere in Dhaka in support of the Brazilian team during the 2018 FIFA World Cup, the ambassador promised to help Bangladesh football.

He stayed true to his words as the very next year the first group of footballers went to Brazil.

Brazil bound players: Mehedi Hasan (Cumilla), Roni Mia (Habiganj), Yasin Arafat (Khulna), Noyon Hossain (Jashore), Abir Hasan (Rajshahi), Anik Debbarma (Habiganj), Pavel Babu (Gaibandha), Shankar Bakti (Habiganj), Liyon Prodhan (Rangpur), Sabbir Hossain (Khulna), Emon Hossain (Natore)

Backup players: Jisan Sheikh (Rajshahi), Mostakim Ali (Kurigram), Ripon Hossain (Khulna), Nibas Kujur (Rajshahi)