Aminul Hoque

Aminul Hoque [ Bengali : আমিনুল হক ] (born 5 October 1980), is a Bangladeshi professional footballer who currently plays as a goalkeeper for Muktijoddha Sangsad KS in Bangladesh League. He is former Bangladesh national football team goalkeeper. He can be marked as the "Greatest Goalkeeper of All Time of Bangladesh (& also arguably the Greatest Footballer of All Time of Bangladesh)". Former Coach of Bangladesh national football team George Kottan even went as far as to declare him as one of the best goalkeepers he has ever seen.^[1]

He is considered one of the great South Asian influential footballer along with Ali Ashfaq and Bhaichung Bhutia of his generation and his good ability to read the game and positional sense made him one of the "Greatest Goalkeeper in South Asian Football History."^[2]

Career

Aminul made his club debut with the Mohammedan junior team in 1994. Trying and failing to break in the starting first eleven of Mohammedan, he ended up in Farashganj where he made his first club division debut 2 years later. He represented most of the well known clubs in the B-League, but spent his golden days with Muktijoddha .In 2002 he played tremendous role for his team to go through second round in Asian Club Championship.He is the 'one man army' in Muktijoddha Sangsad's golden period from 2000 to 2003.His performance made him "club legend'.^[3] For 2 seasons he played for Brothers Union, and then in 2008 he came to Mohammedan . In 2007, he missed an entire season due to injury.^[4]

Although he spent most of his football career in Bangladesh, in 2004 he was contacted by Newcastle United of Premier League for recruitment. But unfortunately, the deal fell through. When asked about it, he said, "yes I did got an offer from Newcastle United, but because of some communication problem, the deal did not progressed." Shebby Singh of ESPN Star said, "he deserves to play in a better league. Maybe even in England with proper training.” He currently plays for Muktijoddha Sangsad in Bangladesh Football Premier League. He also serves as the captain of the squad of the club.^[5]

He has also spent spells in India, Malaysia and Saudi-Arabia.

International career

In 1995, he earned a call up to the Bangladesh national squad, but couldn’t break into the starting eleven right away. Finally, in 1998, his dream came true as he started against Qatar in a friendly match. He won the Gold in 1999 SA Games and 2010 SA Games. His most influential game was probably against Maldives in the finals of 2003 SAFF Championship Cup squad. The game went on to the penalty shoot out and Aminul Hoque stepped up like a true leader. A true shot stopper, he won Bangladesh the game that night with a few fine saves. Aminul was also nominated as the best goalkeeper in the 2003 SAFF games. He uninterruptedly captained the national side from 2005.Bangladeshi football fan cherish his extraordinary performance in SAFF 2005 final although Bangladesh defeated 2-0 against India.^[6] In 2010, when he was at the peak of his career he decided to retire from national team and make way for young players to come in. His last game for the national team was against Hong Kong at the Asian Games in Guangzhou.

Since then, his longtime contender and rival Biplob Bhattacharya took his place as both the captain and goalkeeper of Bangladesh national football team.In 2011 Bangladesh Football Federation's appeal to reconsider his retirement decision to represent the country in the FIFA World Cup pre-qualifiers against Pakistan. He said,“I stick to my decision of retirement from the international arena as I discussed the issue with my family members and well-wishers after getting a comeback call from the BFF on Monday,” ^[7]

References