Mohammedan Sporting Club (Dhaka)

The journey began in Hajaribagh. Members of the famed Nawab family of Dhaka wanted to establish a local club for the youth. As a result, Muslim Sports Club came into being in 1927. Nine years later, with Khwaja M. Ajmal as its president, it was renamed Mohammedan Sporting Club, after its more renowned predecessor the Kolkata Mohammedan.

Though it was established to create enthusiasm for sports amongst the local Muslim community, the club later broke the race, class and ethnic barrier and became a crowd favorite.

In the late 40s, MSC started to flourish with Mohammad Shahjahan at the helm. Shahjahan left Kolkata Mohammedan and came to Bangladesh after the partition. The 1950s was a time for Dhaka Wanderers. They were the top dog in the sporting arena. In 1956, some of their star players and senior officials joined MSC and started restructuring the club. The results were evident as MSC secured their first league title in 1957. The same year they won the Independence Cup, thus ensuring their domestic double. The trophies kept coming over the next two decades.[2]

Before independence, Mohammedan also clinched the Dhaka League title in the year of 1959, '61,'63,'66 and '69. It was not easy to find success against teams like EPIDC, Victoria. Yet, Mohammedan did not yield to failure, they pursued their way.

Mohammedan wins the Aga Khan Gold Cup for the first time in 1959. They repeated the feat twice, in 1964 and 1968.

Dhaka Abahani adds a new dimension to domestic football in the post-independent era. And it begins a new rivalry involving Dhaka Abahani and Dhaka Mohammedan termed Dhaka Derby which took no time to spread the passion and madness throughout the country. Abahani won the league in 1974 and 1977 but the decade, however, belonged to Mohammedan as they got the better of their hardcore rival to win the league in 1975, 1976, 1978 and 1980.

They were unbeaten in the first division league from 8 September, 1985 to 15 March, 1990. Mohammedan did not lose a single match in those one thousand six hundred and fifty days winning 63 of them, drawing 12 times and 1 ended up being postponed. They scored 160 and conceded 22 goals. The Black and Whites took the league title three times in a row from 1986 to 1988.[3] The last time Mohammedan won the league was back in 2002 and with all these years gone, they are still the most number of league winners in Bangladesh- 19 times.

Mohammedan won the Federation Cup ten times, beating Abahani six times in the final. They won their last Federation Cup title back in 2009.[4] Mohammedan also won the most expensive domestic football tournament of the country, Super Cup twice by taking the inaugural edition in 2009 and then the one in 2013. Their record attendance for a football game is nearly 45,000 which took place in 2009.[5]

They had their touch on Independence Cup title three times in 1972, 1991 and 2014 with the latest triumph being their last title in any domestic competition thus far.

Dhaka Mohammedan was the most dominating force in continental competitions among Bangladeshi clubs as well. They made it to the Asian Club Championship (the then Asian Champions League) finals in 1988 thus becoming the first-ever Bangladeshi club to do so. They participated in this tournament a record six times making it to the finals thrice, a record yet to be matched by any South Asian club.[6]

Dhaka Mohammedan starting XI before their first-ever match in Comilla

From the 2019–2020 season the club started playing their matches at the 18,000 capacity Shaheed Dhirendranath Stadium. On 7 March 2020, Mohammedan Sporting Club hogging the spotlight with a 1-0 win over defending champions Bashundhara Kings in their home debut.[8]Nigerian forward Obi Moneke's 25th minute strike, a superb curling effort from the edge of the box, proving to be enough to split the sides.

Dhaka Mohammedan squad for 2020–21 season.[9]

As of 15 December 2020

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  BAN Ahsan Habib Bipu 2 DF  BAN Masud Rana Mredha 3 DF  BAN Kamrul Islam 4 DF  BFA Mounzir Coulidiati 5 DF  BAN Mohammad Atiquzzaman 6 MF  BAN Anik Hossain 7 MF  BAN Habibur Rahman Shohag 8 MF  BAN Shamol Bepari 9 FW  BAN Aminur Rahman Sajib 10 FW  MLI Souleymane Diabate 11 MF  BAN Yousuf Sifat 12 MF  BAN Sahed Hossain 14 DF  BAN Emon Khan 15 MF  BAN Sayed Rakib Khan Evan 16 MF  BAN Sohanur Rahman 17 MF  BAN Mohammad Mithu

No. Pos. Nation Player 18 FW  BAN Saief Samsud 19 MF  JPN Uryu Nagata (Captain) 20 MF  NGA Mohammed Abiola Nurat 21 MF  BAN Farhad Mona 22 GK  BAN Shakib Al Hasan 23 DF  BAN Sadat Hamid 24 MF  BAN Ashraful Haque Asif 25 DF  BAN Sadekujaman Fahim 26 FW  BAN Jahedul Alam 27 MF  BAN Imran Hossain Pappu 28 DF  BAN Rajib Hossain 29 FW  BAN Amir Hakim Bappy 30 GK  BAN Mohammad Sujon 33 GK  BAN Rakib Hossain 37 FW  BAN Jafar Iqbal

• Nasser Hejazi (1986–87)
• Bijan Taheri (1987–89)
• Reza Naalchegar (1987–89)
• Emeka Ezeugo (1989–90)
• Azamat Abduraimov (1991–92)[26]

• Kolkata Mohammedan
• Chittagong Mohammedan

• MSC Limited official website