Imrul Hassan sees bright future for Young Tigers

The Bangladesh Under-15 football team is enjoying a brilliant run of form at the FIFA U-15 Festival in Baku, Azerbaijan, marching into the quarter-finals after a thrilling win over Singapore.

After beating Singapore in the Round of 16 on Wednesday, the young side took to the pitch to face South-Eastern European nation Montenegro in the last eight on Thursday. The Young Tigers delivered a dominant performance, thrashing Montenegro 4-0 in their Tier E quarter-final clash. Bayzid opened the scoring early in the 9th minute, while Pavel struck twice in the 24th and 36th minutes. Shabok also found the net in the 34th minute, capping off a comprehensive victory that keeps their impressive tournament run alive.

Their performances have drawn praise from Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) senior vice-president Imrul Hassan, who believes the talented youngsters could form the backbone of the national team in the years ahead.

Hassan, who is also director of ABG Sports City and president of Bashundhara Kings, expressed satisfaction with the team’s progress and backed them to achieve further success.

Speaking to the media about the team's future, the top football official expressed his satisfaction with their journey so far.

"To be honest, they have played very well up to this point," Hassan said. "We are hopeful that they will win their upcoming matches and bring home a respectable result. We are already very happy with what they have achieved, but we believe they will do even better."

Hassan also expressed optimism that some members of the squad could make the step up to higher levels of international football in the near future.

"Since they are at the Under-15 level, these are the boys who will represent the national team in the future," he added. "We hope that very soon we might see at least one or two of them in the Under-23 side, if not the senior team. Eventually, they will step up to the national team regularly."

Bangladesh’s young goalkeeper has also impressed with his performances in Baku, raising hopes that the country may have found a promising prospect for the future.

However, Hassan cautioned against rushing the youngster into the senior national team, stressing that players at this age need time to develop before making the transition to the highest level.

“Because they are still so young, putting them straight into the national team right now might be a bit early,” he explained. “They are incredibly talented, without a doubt. But I feel they need a little more time to make that jump to the senior side. However, we are confident that many from this group will break into the national team very soon.”