Afusi looking to rebuild a young Sheikh Jamal

Since their re-introduction into top-flight football in 2010, Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club have always been known as a big-spending club, buying out the best of the local talents and assembling them with high-quality foreign recruits. That the Dhanmondi giants won three professional league titles apart from a number of other domestic and one international silverware in the following six seasons has been largely due to that philosophy of spending big on players and coaching staff.

However, after enduring a barren season in 2016-2017 -- when the club lost most of its national team players as well as premier foreign marksman Wedson Anselme -- the club seems to be moving in a completely new direction now.

Last year the club only managed to finish in third place in the league, 20 points behind eventual champions Abahani, while exiting the Federation Cup at the quarterfinals stage and bidding bye to the Independence Cup at the semifinals stage. They also saw their AFC Cup campaign end in the group stages, having finished bottom of their group.

This time though, after being taken over by the Bashundhara Group, the club is looking to rebuild itself, banking on a young squad along with some new foreign recruits. And they are determined to get back on track, if not to challenge for the title, to at least build the side as a strong unit for the future. And they have brought back their former coach Joseph Afusi, one who knows the club culture inside out, to do the rebuilding job.

The squad, a relatively young and energetic one, has been put through their paces at the club's headquarters in Dhanmondi for the last month. The Nigerian coach is banking on his young brigade to make a mark on the local scene again. With the pre-season transfers still underway and the start of the season still some way off, Afusi thinks he can get this untested bunch to a desired level to challenge the big names in domestic circuit.

“We don't have superstars; we don't have national team players. But the players we have are good players. What I will have to do is to guide them, show them what to do and hopefully if they do what I tell them, we can achieve something good,” Afusi said yesterday while working with the players.

The club has already poached some promising players from mid-table clubs like Muktijoddha KC, Rahmatganj MFS, Arambagh KS, Uttar Baridhara, Team BJMC, etc. They also have brought in a few foreign players including a striker from Nigeria, an attacking midfielder from Argentina and a winger from Gambia -- all of whom, the coach believes, have a bright future in Bangladesh football.

“I have players like Afsar, Sohel, Manik, Mamun who are real quality. They just need to have the self-belief, and we are working on instilling that self-confidence in them. These players will have to challenge the branded players. They have to understand that there is no difference between big and small player,” Afusi hoped.

After losing Wedson to a foreign league and seeing Emeka Darlington switch to Abahani, Sheikh Jamal DC is looking to build the side around national team's centre-back Yeasin Khan, and midfielder Landing Darboe, given the Gambian stays with his old club.

“We have collected unheralded players from some mid table teams because our target was to give the young and promising players a platform to shine. You will see stars emerge from these players,” hoped the club's manager Anwarul Karim Helal.