Mohammedan Sporting Club (Dhaka)


Mohammedan Sporting Club Limited Dhaka, founded in 1936 at Dhaka, is one of the oldest and one of the most popular football clubs in Bangladesh, with a support base in all parts of the country. The club currently plays in the Bangladesh Premier League.

History

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.
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 repeat the feat twice in 1964 and 1968 respectively.
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 the 8th of September, 1985 to 15th of March, 1990! Unbelievably enough, 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. 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. 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.
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 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.

Rivalries

Dhaka Derby

The Dhaka Derby is a football rivalry between Abahani and Mohammedan, although the rivalry was bigger in the past. Dhaka Mohammedan and Dhaka Abahani first met each other during 1973 Dhaka League. Late Amalesh Sen scored the first goal in that match and became the first-ever goal scorer in the history of Dhaka Derby.
On 16 July 2019, Mohammedan Sporting Club thrashed their archrival Abahani Ltd Dhaka 4-0 in their BPL meeting at Bangabandhu National Stadium. This win also equals their biggest ever Dhaka Derby victory.

Shirt sponsors

Stadium

From the 2019–2020 season the club started playing their matches at the 8,000 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.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.

Current squad

Dhaka Mohammedan squad for 2019–20 season.

Personnel

Current technical staff

As of January 2020
PositionName
Head Coach Sean Lane
Assistant Coach James McAloon
Team Manager Imtiaz Ahmed Nakib

Management

Board of directors

As of January 2020.

Team records

Head Coach's record

Head CoachNat.FromToPWDLGSGA%W
Kang Man-youngDecember 2004March 2005
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Shafiqul Islam Manik11 October 20052007
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Maruful Haque200813 May 2010
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Shafiqul Islam Manik23 August 20102011
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Emeka Ezeugo18 November 20112012
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Saiful Bari Titu20122013
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Rui Capela31 December 2013July 2014
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Alfaz Ahmed^May 2014May 2014
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Jewel Rana^May 2014June 2014
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Joshimuddin Joshi24 November 20147 October 2016
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Mizanur Rahman Don^14 October 201629 December 2016
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Abdul Qaium Sentu10 January 201724 February 2017
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Syed Nayeemuddin9 May 201731 October 2017
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Rashed Ahmed Pappu^November 2017February 2018
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Christopher Evans19 September 20183 January 2019
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Ali Asgar Nasir3 January 201916 February 2019
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Shahidul Islam Jewel^18 February 20194 March 2019
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Sean Lane4 April 2019present
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Honours

League

It was champion in the Independence Cup Football Tournament.

Invitational