Mamunul says he's retiring

Bangladesh national football team's skipper Mamunul Islam yesterday announced his decision to retire from international football after being excluded from the 23-member squad for today's Asian Cup Qualifying Playoff against Bhutan.

Even though coach Tom Saintfiet said at the pre-match press briefing that Mamunul's injury last week, which kept him out of training for a whole week and forced him to miss the Maldives friendly was the reason for his omission, Mamunul begged to differ.

“I have not been included in the squad for the Bhutan fixture. I don't know why the coach took the decision and he didn't even let me know about his decision. I felt insulted, hence I decided to retire from the national team,” the 28-year-old midfielder told The Daily Star. “I didn't play the Maldives friendly only to gain full fitness before Bhutan match and I did full training in the last two days.”

Mamunul, however, hasn't yet tendered his official resignation to the Bangladesh Football Federation.

It was not only Mamunul, but quite a few other senior players such as Wali Faisal, Pranotosh Kumar, Yeamin Ahmed Munna were excluded due to poor performance.

Wali, the veteran left-back, also announced his retirement from international football in the wake of the exclusion.

“I don't want to blame anyone for my retirement decision but I will never change my mind,” he said. “The coach might think that I have nothing left to give to the national team so he took the decision.

“I have earned a lot by playing for Bangladesh and I wish the team good luck for tomorrow's match.”

It has been learnt that some of the senior players went to team leader Shawkat Ali Khan Jahangir on the previous day to give their opinion regarding formation and style of play, which didn't go down well with the coach and that might have influenced the coach to dropping those players.