Wanderers back in the big league with nostalgia and new hope

Dhaka Wanderers Club, a forgotten name in the country's football despite a glorious past, returned to top-flight football after 19 years following their runners-up finish in the Bangladesh Championship League, thanks to a goalless draw against BFF Elite Football Academy in their last match at the Birshreshtha Shaheed Mostafa Kamal Stadium in Kamalapur yesterday.

It will be the first appearance for Wanderers in the Bangladesh Premier League – the top-tier professional league of the country – and they will join promoted Fakirerpool Young Men's Club, who emerged as BCL champions.

Wanderers used to have a key rivalry with Mohammedan in the 1950s and 1960s before gradually losing the lustre due to the organisational failure.

"Club officials from the old part of Dhaka operated Mohammedan and Wanderers before the liberation war. Those two teams had big rivalry with huge support base and the matches between these two teams used to draw huge crowd the way Abahani versus Mohammedan matches used to draw after liberation," veteran organiser Manzur Hossain Malu told The Daily Star.

"Wanderers started going down in 1968-69 once East Pakistan Industrial Development Corporation (EPIDC) started forming strong teams and the supporters of Wanderers also started supporting EPIDC, which later turned into BJMC after liberation. There were also financial problems under the leadership of president Aga Yousuf and general secretary Wazed Ali," Malu reflected. "After liberation, Wanderers were dealt another blow when Abahani was formed as most supporters of the club flocked to the new club."

Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman once played for Wanderers Club, as did his elder son Sheikh Kamal, who played basketball for Wanderers.

The entry gate of the almost century-old club. Photo: Firoz Ahmed

Head coach Abu Yousuf said, "I am fortunate that I coached Dhaka Wanderers Club where Bangabandhu played. There is an emotion and I think the club officials should cash in on this to go further."

In its heydays, the club boasted stars like Nabi Chowdhury, Amir Jong Gaznabi, Fazlur Rahman Arzu, Kabir Ahmed, Ashraf Chowdhury, Chingla Mong Chowdhury Mari, Manzur Hasan Mintu, Jakaria Pintu, Major Hafizuddin and Wazed Gazi played. But once it fell into hard times, it kept going down – getting demoted to the lower division from the top division for the first time in 1995. Since then Wanderers had moved up and down between the top two tiers quite a few times before their latest demotion in 2005. And then the big blow came in 2019 in the form of the casino scandal.

Following the scandal and closure of the club, the club tent assumed a deserted look, with all the doors and window scraped off by thieves.

However, the new management of the club is slowly bringing changes and the club is now all set to compete again against the heavyweights of domestic football.

"President Kazi Shahidullah Liton, younger brother of KM Nazibullah Hiru, has been playing a key role in rebuilding the club by providing financial support and managing sponsors for the last four years," informed the club's general secretary Mohammad Kamal Hossain.

"After the casino scandal, we faced a lot of problems in collecting funds but we were also able to make some people realise that it was an accident which happened due to misunderstanding among the club officials," said Kamal, who played in the country's top-flight football from 1987 to 1996.

Asked about the difference between Wanderers of now and that of yesteryears, Kamal said, "The difference is money. When we played football, we played it as an art and gained fame, but not for money. There were, however, opportunities to get jobs from the government-backed office teams. Footballers were not professionals then but now footballers are 100 percent professional and teams like Mohammedan and Abahani are also struggling due to financial issues."

When asked how the club would manage a big budget for BPL next season, Kamal said, "We will have to double our effort to manage sponsors. We needed one crore taka for the BCL squad but now we may need five crore taka for the BPL. Fortunately, as the club is doing well, the old buddies, well-wishers and supporters of the club are coming forward to help the club."

Dhaka Wanderers Club

Established: 1937

Dhaka League title: 1950, 1951, 1953, 1954, 1956, 1960

Independence Day Cup: 1956 and 1966

Aga Khan Gold Cup: Runners-up in 1963

Federation Cup: Runners-up in 1987

Casino scandal: 2019

Promotion to BPL: 2024