Maruful Haque, the first ever South Asian football coach to obtain a UEFA A license and one of the first Bangladeshi coaches had the AFC Pro-Diploma is likely to be appointed as the head coach Abahani Limited for this season.
Abahani Limited, who are going through a huge crisis this year after the club was vandalised by a group of miscreants following the Awami League led Government fall, did not sign any foreign booters or foreign coach this season.
It is the first time for one of the powerhouses in the country’s domestic soccer Abahani, will play the league without any foreign players and foreign coach since their appearance in 1972.
However, the highest six times title winners of the Professional Football League since introduced here in 2007, earlier almost set to appoint Spaniard Mario Rivera Campesino as their head coach and was on process to make deal with some foreign players for the season starting this month with the Bangladesh Premier League football.
But the traditional Sky-Blue were forced to cancel all their plans of recruiting foreign coach and players following the awkward situation and decided to appoint Maruful, one of the profilic coaches of the country.
Maruful made his professional coaching career debut in the top tier in 2008, when he was appointed as head coach of the traditional giant Mohammedan Sporting in 2008.
He led the club to win the Federation Cup title in both 2008 and 2009 and biggest achievement during his tenure at the club was the triumph in the 2009 Super Cup and Under his guidance, Mohammedan became runners-up in the Bangladesh Premier League during both seasons.
Maruful, joined another giant of Bangladesh football, Muktijoddha Sangsad KS in 2010, and helped the club to become runners-up.
Maruful spent a memorable season in his coaching career in 2012-2013 season when he achieved a rare feat in the country’s football. Under his guidance, Sheikh Russel Krira Chakra won the domestic treble jus following a bit failure of his first season with the team finishing fifth in 2011-2012.
Maruf also had a great success as head coach of Sheikh Jamal with leading them to win Federation Cup title in 2014–15 season following the club won an invitational pre-season tournament in Bhutan, the Kings Cu outplaying the Kolkata giants.
Maruful, who was also coach of Bangladesh national team and different age group teams, achieved another success making the Bangladesh Under-20 national football champions in the SAFF Championship last month, held in Nepal.
