Bangladesh women’s football did something within the last eight years which was never seen in the country’s football history after the Liberation War in 1971. Women’s football was first launched under Asian Football Confederation’s Vision Asia programme in 2007 in Bangladesh, but within just 16 years the wing became the most prestigious field in the country’s sports arena. It can be specifically said that within just seven years women’s wing put their success marks in the different phases of women’s football from U-14s to senior level on the international stage.

The credit for this success story must go to the head coach of the women’s football team Golam Rabbani Choton. Under Choton, the women’s team became champions in AFC U-14 Girls’ Regional Championship (South and Central) in 2015 and 2016, SAFF U-15 Women’s Championship in 2019, SAFF U-18 Women’s Championship in 2018, SAFF U-19 Women’s Championship in 2021, SAFF Women’s Championship in 2022 and recently in SAFF U-20 Women’s Championship in 2023.

Despite having this tally of honorarium, the mastermind of the women’s football Choton and his students have been facing criticism regarding their performances. But Choton stepped up this time and shouted at all critics ‘Stop criticism of women’s football’. While talking to The Daily Sun after their successful campaign in the SAFF U-20 Women's Championship on Friday, Choton made this bold remark.

Here are the excerpts from the interview:     

The Daily Sun: Back-to-back three successes in three years (SAFF U-19 in 2021, SAFF in 2022 and SAFF U-20 in 2023). Do you think of yourself as superman?

Golam Rabbani Choton: (Laugh) No of course not, I’m just a simple man and trying to play my role with honesty. All the credit goes to the girls (players). They did everything. They did a lot of hard work and got their results.

The Daily Sun: What’s next?

Golam Rabbani Choton: The target is to qualify in AFC U-20 Women’s Asian Cup 2024 Qualifiers in March in Dhaka. Bangladesh will play against Turkmenistan and Iran on March 10 and 12 in Group H of Qualifiers round one. We want to qualify for the next round (round 2). We earlier played in AFC U-19 Women's Championship 2019 Qualifiers in 2018 in Tajikistan but didn’t qualify. But this time we are confident.

Apart from these, there are several assignments this year, and a very tight-packed schedule. The senior team will tour Singapore, and then they have AFC Women’s Olympic 2024 Qualifiers likely to be held in April and AFC U-17 Women’s Asian Cup 2024 Qualifiers in April in Singapore.

The Daily Sun: What are other feats you achieved in SAFF U-20s except for the title?

Golam Rabbani Choton: There is no personal feat, but this team achieved a lot through this competition. Girls got the chance to train themselves, to improve themselves for the upcoming challenges. The team are better prepared now, technically sound, physically strong and mentally confident than ever. Also, there are a lot of players coming in the pipeline for the national team after this competition.

We found a lot of potential players. In the previous batch, I'm talking about Maria-Monica, they got a lot of international matches in different age-level competitions. They gradually played AFC U-14s, and U-16s as well as got a chance to train themselves in an international environment, but this U-20s team got nothing. The last AFC U-19s were canceled due to Covid. Most of the players of this U-20s team are going to play their first competition in AFC U-20s. But even though I think they are doing their best.

The Daily Sun: So, there is a big challenge waiting for you?  

Golam Rabbani Choton: (Laugh) I think all tournaments have the same challenges. 

The Daily Sun: Some said that the girls are not able to run enough. 

Golam Rabbani Choton: It is a false statement. In the last SAFF U-15s (SAFF U-15 Women’s Championship held in Kamalapur last November), a girl in U-15 ran up to 12,000 km. And in this competition (SAFF U-20s) every player in this team has run about 10,000 km. Girls are now able to play for more than 90 minutes.

The Daily Sun: There are also some other criticisms of their performances.

Golam Rabbani Choton: Let me tell you something… I know that people criticise a lot and still it is going on. They made comments on women’s football like there are no player pipelines, and there are a few players who have been playing in different teams... But do they talk about titles? We have titles in different competitions from the U-14s to senior levels. We have titles in U-14s, U-15s, U-18s, U-19s, U-20s and senior level. And they achieved this title facing tough opponents including India and Nepal. The girls proved themselves through their performances and achieved a place globally through their performances and came to this platform through their performances. Please stop criticising women’s football.    

The Daily Sun: What is your secret behind this success?  Is it any kind of magic?

Golam Rabbani Choton: (Lough) No magic … just consistency, hard work and transparency, and of course, a disciplined lifestyle in the camp. All of you have seen our camp. All of us from players to coaching staff do a lot of hard work from morning to evening. These are behind our success.

The Daily Sun: You said there are some potential players you found during the SAFF U-20s. Do they come to the national side soon?

Golam Rabbani Choton: Of course, there are some players in my list. Apart from Shamsunnahar, Sapna and others who are already in the national team, there will be new faces who will get a call in the national side even though they may also get calls for the upcoming Singapore tour.  Ripa, Surma, Afeida, Aklima, Unnoti and some others. They deserve it.