The Bangladesh national under-20 football team represents Bangladesh in international youth football competitions in SAFF U-20 Championship, AFC U-20 Championship and FIFA U-20 World Cup, as well as any other under-20, under-19 & under-18 international football tournaments. The team is operated under the Bangladesh Football Federation.
| Nickname(s) | Bengal Tigers | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Association | Bangladesh Football Federation | ||
| Confederation | AFC (Asia) | ||
| Sub-confederation | SAFF (South Asia) | ||
| Head coach | Rashed Ahmed Pappu | ||
| Captain | Moinul Islam Moin | ||
| Home stadium | Bangabandhu National Stadium | ||
| |||
| First international | |||
Bangladesh  0–2  Philippines(Kuwait City, Kuwait; 5 April 1975) | |||
| Biggest win | |||
Bangladesh 5–0  Maldives(Malé, Maldives; 29 July 1996) | |||
| Biggest defeat | |||
Bangladesh 0–6  India(Doha, Qatar; 16 October 2002) Bangladesh 0–6  Iraq(Dhaka, Bangladesh; 27 October 2011) Bangladesh 0–6 Iraq(Abril, Iraq; 8 October 2013) | |||
| FIFA U-20 World Cup | |||
| Appearances | 0 | ||
| AFC U-19 Championship | |||
| Appearances | 6 (first in 1975) | ||
| Best result | 5th (1980) | ||
| SAFF U-20 Championship | |||
| Appearances | 4 (first in 2015) | ||
| Best result | Runners-up (2017, 2019, 2022) | ||
They have qualified for the AFC U-20 Championship six previous times and is yet to qualify for FIFA U-20 World Cup. The team taken part in four editions of the SAFF U-20 Championship, however, is yet to win the trophy.[1][2] Since 2022, Bangladesh U-20 began taking part in all stages of the AFC Championship. Previously, the U-19 team participated in the tournament.[3]
History edit
1975−2000 edit
After becoming affiliated with the Asian Football Confederation in 1973, the Bangladesh team were given direct entry into the 1975 AFC Youth Championship & 1977 AFC Youth Championship, although they ended both tournaments without achieving a single victory. The Bangladesh Football Federation however, failed to arrange a regular youth setup as the team did not participate during the 1974 and 1976 editions of the tournament even after acquiring AFC membership.
The 1978 AFC Youth Championship was held in Dhaka, becoming the first major football tournament held in Bangladesh. Coaches Abdur Rahim and Abdus Sadek were given the task of building the team with three months to go. However, West Germany's Werner Bickelhaupt came as the head coach of the team on the initiative of FIFA. Bickelhaupt, the first foreign football coach of Bangladesh's national team at any level, later served as the coach of the senior team as well. Bickelhaupt's team consisted of: Suhas Barua, Moinul Karim, Dewan Arefin Tutul, Abul Hossain, Sawpan Das, Mukul, Kawsar Ali, Abdus Salam, Md. Badal, Ashish Bhadra, Aslam, Hasanuzzaman Bablu, Kazi Anwar, Hasan Ahmadul Haque, Golam Rabbani Helal, Salam Murshedy, Mohammed Mohsin (captain). Standby: Abdul Halim, Majid, Ghaffer, Moni, Wahiduzzaman Pintu. The team leader was Zillur Rahman, joint manager Nabi Chowdhury and AQZ Islam Kislu and assistant coach Abdur Rahim. Bangladesh were drawn into Group C with Singapore, North Yemen, Bahrain and Kuwait. All games were held at the Bangabandhu National Stadium.[4]
Bangladesh's first match was against Singapore. A quick double from Singapore striker Donang, saw the hosts fall behind 2–0. However, goals from Ashish Bhadra and captain Mohsin meant the game finished 2–2. In the next game against North Yemen, the Bangladesh team created history by winning the game 1–0, thanks to a lone goal by striker Hassan Ahmedul Haque.[5] However, the next match saw Bangladesh being defeated 2–0 by Kuwait, the team ended the tournament with a 1–1 draw against Bahrain thanks to a penalty taken by Moshin. The draw meant Bangladesh had failed to reach the quarter-finals finishing a point behind Bahrain, even after going toe to toe with much stronger opposition. Bangladesh then took part in the 1980 AFC Youth Championship, thanks to Sheikh Aslam's goals during qualification. The team finished bottom of their group in the main tournament, having been drawn in a tough group Bangladesh managed earn points against South Korea and Qatar.
Bangladesh almost managed to qualify for the 1985 AFC Youth Championship, after finishing second in their qualifying group alongside South Korea, the team were knocked out of the qualifiers after losing 1–0 in the semi-finals to China. Bangladesh ended up losing the 3rd place match to South Korea. Bangladesh did not participate in the next two out of the five Youth Championship qualifiers, before again qualifying in 1996 after defeating Maldives 8–0 in aggregate. However, in the main tournament, the team disappointed conceding a total of twelve goals in four games, salvaging only a goalless draw against Iran.
2000−present edit
After being unfortunate to not qualify for the 2000 AFC Youth Championship, the Bangladesh team managed to qualify for the 2002 AFC Youth Championship, held in Qatar. Nevertheless, they failed to win a single game during the entirety of the Championship. Since 2002, the Bangladesh U20 team was unable to take part in a major tournament until the launching of SAFF U-18 Championship, in 2015. The 2015 SAFF U-19 Championship which was the tournaments first edition was held in Nepal. Rohit Sarkar and Mannaf Rabby scored as Bangladesh defeated Bhutan in their maiden SAFF U-18 Championship game.[6] After advancing to the semi-final as group runner-up, Bangladesh came up short during the penalty shoot-out to India as Rahmat Mia missed the last penalty.[7]
Mahabub Hossain Roksy's team made a remarkable comeback during the opening game of the 2017 SAFF U-18 Championship. After falling 3-0 behind, goals from Jafar Iqbal, Rahmat Mia and Mahbubur Rahman saw Bangladesh win the game 4–3.[8] However, after losing to Nepal 2–1, Bangladesh finished in second place due to head to head results. Roxy's team also showed some promising displays during the 2018 AFC U-19 Championship qualifiers (previously known as the AFC Youth Championship) although they failed to qualify once more.[9] Atikuzzaman's owngoal in the 94th minute against Uzbekistan, lead to Bangladesh's only defeat during the qualifiers.[10] Bangladesh reached the final of the 2019 SAFF U-18 Championship, only to lose to India 1–2. Bangladesh conceded the first goal within two minutes and although they were down to 10-men after Mohammad Ridoy was sent off after a scuffle with the Indian players, captain Yeasin Arafat equalized just before half-time, but the referee sent him off due to his celebrations and Indian striker Ravi Rana scored the winner in stoppage time to seal his sides victory.[11] The teams fate kept on worsening as, they finished bottom of their group during the 2020 AFC U-19 Championship qualifiers.
Due to the ongoing domestic league season, Bangladesh team for the 2022 SAFF U-20 Championship mainly consisted U-17 players from the BFF Elite Academy and the Bangladesh Championship League.[12] The team was impressive throughout the tournament but had similar fate to the previous edition, as they lost to India in the final.[13]
Coaches edit
Coaching staff edit
- As of September 2023
| Position | Name |
|---|---|
| Head coach | Rashed Ahmed Pappu
|
| Assistant coach | Md Jahangir Alam Md Mehedi Hasan Siddiqui
|
| Goalkeeper coach | Sayeed Hassan Kanan
|
| Physio | Md Golijar Ahmed
|
| Team Manager | Khandaker Rakibul Islam
|
| Media Officer | Mozammal Hossain
|
Manager history edit
| Year | Head coach |
|---|---|
| 1975 | Mohammed Noor Hossain
|
| 1977 | Anwar Hossain
|
| 1978 |  Werner Bickelhaupt
|
| 1980 |  Abdul Gafur Baloch
|
| 1984 | Golam Sarwar Tipu
|
| 1988 | Werner Bickelhaupt
|
| 2000–2003 | Abu Yusuf
|
| 2011 |  Nikola Ilievski
|
| 2013 |  René Koster
|
| 2015–2016 | Saiful Bari Titu
|
| 2017 | Mahabub Hossain Roksy
|
| 2017–2018 |  Andrew Ord
|
| 2019 | Andy Peter Turner
|
| 2022 | Paul Smalley (interim)
|
| 2022– | Rashed Ahmed Pappu
|
Squad edit
Current U-20 squad edit
The following 23 players list were named in the squad for the 2023 AFC U-20 Asian Cup qualifiers.[14]
Current U-19 squad edit
The following 23 players list were named in the squad for the 2023 SAFF U-19 Championship.[15]
Fixtures and results edit
Win Draw Loss Fixture
2022 edit
| 25 July 2022 2022 SAFF U-20 Championship | Bangladesh | 1–0 |  Sri Lanka | Bhubaneswar |
|
Stadium: Kalinga Stadium |
| 27 July 2022 2022 SAFF U-20 Championship | Bangladesh | 2–1 | India | Bhubaneswar |
|
Stadium: Kalinga Stadium |
| 29 July 2022 2022 SAFF U-20 Championship | Bangladesh | 4–1 | Maldives | Bhubaneswar |
|
Stadium: Kalinga Stadium |
| 2 August 2022 2022 SAFF U-20 Championship | Bangladesh | 1–1 |  Nepal | Bhubaneswar |
|
|
Stadium: Kalinga Stadium |
| 5 August 2022 2022 SAFF U-20 Championship | Bangladesh | 2–5 (a.e.t.) | India | Bhubaneswar, India |
| 19:00 UTC+05:30 |
|
|
Attendance: 10,231 Referee: Hussain Sinan (Maldives) |
| 10 September 2022 2023 AFC U-20 Asian Cup qualification | Bangladesh | 0–0 |  Bahrain | Arad, Bahrain |
| 21:00 UTC+03:00 | Report | Stadium: Al Muharraq Stadium Attendance: 1468 Referee: Thoriq Alkatiri (Indonesia) |
| 12 September 2022 2023 AFC U-20 Asian Cup qualification | Bangladesh | 2–1 |  Bhutan | Arad |
| 18:00 UTC+03:00 | Report |
|
Stadium: Al Muharraq Stadium Attendance: 635 Referee: Yudai Yamamoto (Japan) |
| 16 September 2022 2023 AFC U-20 Asian Cup qualification | Bangladesh | 0–3 |  Qatar | Arad, Bahrain |
| 18:00 UTC+03:00 | Stadium: Al Muharraq Stadium |
| 18 September 2022 2023 AFC U-20 Asian Cup qualification | Bangladesh | 3–0 | Nepal | Arad, Bahrain |
| 18:00 UTC+03:00 | Report | Stadium: Al Muharraq Stadium Attendance: 1019 Referee: Ahmed Eisa (United Arab Emirates) |
Competition records edit
FIFA U-20 World Cup edit
| FIFA U-20 World Cup | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Host/Year | Result | Position | Pld | W | D* | L | GF | GA | |
 1977to  2019
|
did not Qualify | ||||||||
 2021 |
Cancelled | ||||||||
 2023 |
did not qualify | ||||||||
 2025 |
TBD | ||||||||
| Total | 0/24 | – | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
AFC U-20 Asian Cup edit
| AFC U-20 Asian Cup | Qualification | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Result | Position | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | Squad | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | ||
 1959to  1971 |
Part of Pakistan
|
Part of Pakistan
| |||||||||||||||
 1972 to 1974 |
did not participate | did not participate | |||||||||||||||
 1975 |
Group Stage |
16/19 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 9 | N/A | Directly qualified | |||||||
| 1976 |
did not participate | did not participate | |||||||||||||||
 1977 |
Group Stage |
12/13 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 7 | N/A | Directly qualified | |||||||
| 1978 |
Group Stage |
10/19 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 5 | N/A | Directly qualified as a host | |||||||
| 1980 |
Round Robin |
5/5 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 7 | N/A | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 3 | ||
| 1982 |
did not participate | did not participate | |||||||||||||||
 1985 |
did not qualify | 4 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 3 | ||||||||||
 1986 |
did not participate | did not participate | |||||||||||||||
| 1988 |
did not qualify | 2[16] | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | ||||||||||
| 1990 |
4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 3 | |||||||||||
| 1992 |
4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 1 | |||||||||||
| 1994 |
did not participate | did not participate | |||||||||||||||
 1996 |
Group Stage |
9/10 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 12 | N/A | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0 | ||
| 1998 |
did not qualify | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 6 | ||||||||||
| 2000 |
3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 2 | |||||||||||
| 2002 |
Group Stage |
12/12 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 13 | N/A | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 2 | ||
| 2004 |
did not qualify | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | ||||||||||
| 2006 |
2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 7 | |||||||||||
| 2008 |
Withdrew | Withdrew | |||||||||||||||
 2010 |
did not qualify | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 14 | ||||||||||
| 2012 |
4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 11 | |||||||||||
 2014 |
2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 6 | |||||||||||
| 2016 |
3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 | |||||||||||
| 2018 |
4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 1 | |||||||||||
 2020 |
Cancelled | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 6 | ||||||||||
| 2023 |
did not qualify | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 4 | ||||||||||
| Total | 6/41 | 0 Titles | 21 | 1 | 5 | 15 | 10 | 53 | — | 56 | 25 | 13 | 20 | 76 | 80 | ||
SAFF U-20 Championship edit
| SAFF U-20 Championship | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hosts / Year | Result | Position | GP | W | D* | L | GS | GA | |
| 2015 |
Semi-finals |
3/6 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 2 | |
| 2017 |
Runners-up |
2/5 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 5 | |
| 2019 |
Runners-up |
2/6 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 2 | |
| 2022 |
Runners-up |
2/5 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 10 | 8 | |
| 2023 |
Group stage | 6/6 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 7 | |
| Total | 5/5 | 0 Titles | 18 | 9 | 2 | 7 | 33 | 24 | |
Honours edit
See also edit
References edit
- ^ "Bangladesh U-20 football team". International Soccerway. Retrieved 12 June 2015.
- ^ "Bangladesh U-20 football team statistics, fixtures, results, squad". Global Sports Archive. Retrieved 7 August 2021.
- ^ "AFC rebrands age group championships to AFC Asian Cups". AFC. 2 October 2020.
- ^ "ঢাকার মাঠে সবচেয়ে বড় ফুটবল উৎসব". Utp al Shuvro.
- ^ "মনে পড়ে দেশের মাটিতে প্রথম জয়ের নায়ক তারকা ফুটবলার সুদর্শন স্ট্রাইকার হাসানের কথা | Kiron's Sports Desk".
- ^ Report, Star Online (August 22, 2015). "SAFF U-19: Bangladesh romp into the semis". The Daily Star.
- ^ Report, Star Online (August 27, 2015). "SAFF U-19: Bangladesh lose to India in the semi-finals". The Daily Star.
- ^ Report, Star Online (September 18, 2017). "Bangladesh stage incredible comeback to beat India". The Daily Star.
- ^ "AFC U-19 Championship Qualifiers: Brave Bangladesh hold host Tajikistan". Dhaka Tribune. November 1, 2017.
- ^ "AFC U19 Qualifiers: Bangladesh lose 1–0 to fate |". BFF.
- ^ Correspondent, Sports. "Nine-man Bangladesh lose tense SAFF U-18 Championship final to 10-man India". bdnews24.com.
- ^ "দেখে নিন অনূর্ধ্ব-২০ সাফে বাংলাদেশ দল এবং ম্যাচের সূচি | কালের কণ্ঠ". Kalerkantho. July 21, 2022.
- ^ Report, Star Sports (August 5, 2022). "Gurkirat shatters Bangladesh's dream in SAFF U-20 final". The Daily Star.
- ^ "BFF announces squad for AFC U-20 Asian Cup qualifiers". daily sun.
- ^ "U-19 football team to leave for Nepal on Tuesday". New Age.
- ^ "লালবাগের সহীদ এক দশকে মাত্র দুটি দলেই খেলেছেন". Ctgsangbad24 (in Bengali). Archived from the original on 6 February 2024.
- ^ TEAM SPORTSTAR, 21:34 IST (5 August 2022). "India beats Bangladesh to clinch U20 SAFF Championship". sportstar.thehindu.com. Bhubaneswar, Odisha: Sportstar. Archived from the original on 5 August 2022. Retrieved 5 August 2022.
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