Dhaka Wanderers Club

1940 Bogura Cup winning Dhaka Wanderers team, captained by Bangabundhu Sheikh Mujibur Rhaman.

Founded in 1937, the club was first known as Muslim Wanderers, until it became Dhaka Wanderers over time as a bunch of sports-lovers from Old Dhaka brought the club into a prominent position in the local sports arena. Under the teams president Abdul Gaffar who came from the Nawab's of Dhaka, they became a popular name in Bengali football after its debut in the Dhaka football scene. With the help of Pakistani defender Gafur Baloch and legendary winger Mari Chowdhury, Wanderers lifted the first-division trophy 5 times. Before Bangladesh's independence in 1971, Wanderers had Bengali talents like Nabi Chowdhury, Kabir Ahmad, Amir Jang Ghaznabi, Ashraf Chowdhury, Manzur Hasan Mintu, Zakaria Pintoo and Wazed Gazi to only name a few.[4] The clubs most prominent players Mari, Shantoo and Pintoo got the chance to represent the Pakistan national team, while Pintoo later went on to become captain of both Shadhin Bangla Football Team and Bangladesh.[5][6] The clubs strength was evident when they participated in the Aga Khan Gold Cup, winning 7–0 and 1–0 respectively, against the senior national team of both Nepal and Sri Lanka.[7]

Including their first league trophy in 1950, the club won a total of seven Dhaka League titles from 1950 to 1960. The historic club also won the league every season from 1950 to 1956, except for the 1952 season, however, like all their other achievements the trophies were burnt during a local riot. During the fifties and sixties, the Wanderers and Mohammedan rivalry was the biggest and most anticipated game in Bengali football.[8] Former Bangladesh prime minister Bangabundhu Sheikh Mujibur Rhaman, was also a regular player at the club during the early 40s and 50s.[9] During the 1972 Dhaka League season, Wanderers striker “Boro” Nazir Ahmed, scored a hattrick against Dilkusha SC, becoming the first player to achieve this feat since the country's independence.[10] Nonetheless, over time after the nations Independence in 1971, the rivalry with Mohammedan SC had lost its presence, as the club moved to the second division in the nineties, losing its huge support base and popularity all over the country. After being relegated from the top-flight again in 2005, the club was an irregular face in domestic competitions, dropping down to the Senior Division League and was only able to achieve promotion to the second-tier in 2020 after runner-up.

In September 2019, number of Bangladeshi clubs were caught running illegal casinos and Wanderers were one of them.[11] After the casino raid, President Advocate Mollah Abu Kawsar resigned citing personal reasons. General Secretary Joy Gopal Sarkar was sent to jail. Since the incident took place, the team was in dismay, the players were reported to be living in the neighboring club Azad Sporting and some at the hotels or with their relatives, as the club failed to pay their dues. The condition of food is also as miserable as the accommodation. The club had no source of income, and ever since the scandal no donations were being made to help them. Surprisingly, Dhaka Wanderers Club gained promotion from the Dhaka League (third-division since 2007) in 2020.[12] It was the first time the club reached the new second-division league in Bangladesh, after spending decades outside of the country's top 2 leagues. The club finished 7th during their first season in the BCL with 7 wins out of 22 league games.[13] In March 2021, it was revealed that the team's coach Kamal Babu himself paid 18,000 Bangladeshi Taka to the footballers instead of taking his own salary. Despite taking part in the 2020–21 Bangladesh Championship League with so much difficulty, the BFF had supposedly not yet paid the club their participation fee. During this predicament the club faced, a large institution connected with football gave them a check of 3 lakh rupees.[14]

Dhaka Wanderers Club squad for 2022–23 season.[15]

As of 11 January 2023

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 Naeem Ahammad Murad 2 DF  BAN Md Rooni Haider 3 DF  BAN Emon Mollah 4 DF  BAN Shahriar Hossain Rimon 5 DF  BAN Md Shamim Sheikh 6 MF  BAN Md Zahid Hossain 7 MF  BAN Md Sajon 8 MF  BAN Md Shihab Miah 9 FW  BAN Aksah Mridha 10 FW  BAN Sourav Dewan 11 FW  BAN Amar Ibne Amin 12 FW  BAN Md Ali Hossain 13 DF  BAN Md Aminul Islam 14 MF  BAN Md Shahedul Hasan Anik 15 MF  BAN Khandoker Khalid Hassan 16 DF  BAN Md Sanowar Hossain Lal Mia 17 FW  BAN Md Golam Sarwar

No. Pos. Nation Player 18 MF  BAN Md Mahir Auchaf 19 MF  BAN Md Rony Mia 20 FW  BAN Hefaz Uddin 21 DF  BAN Bijoy Chandra Das 22 GK  BAN Mohammed Emon Hawladar 23 MF  BAN Akash Ali 24 FW  BAN Md Shohag Mia 25 MF  BAN Md Saiful Islam 26 DF  BAN Md Soroar Talukdar 27 MF  BAN Jahangir Alam Leo 28 DF  BAN Md Shajahan Ali 29 FW  BAN Md Atiqul Islam 30 GK  BAN Khandakar Saad Ishtique 31 MF  BAN Atik Sarkar 32 MF  BAN Luis Kisshu 33 GK  BAN Md Bappy Hassan 34 MF  BAN Md Al Amin

• Dhaka League[16]
  • Winner (7): 1950, 1951, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1960
• Dhaka First Division League
  • Winner: 2002
• Federation Cup
  • Runners-up: 1987

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Dhaka Wanderers Club.

• Team info at Global Sports Archive
• Team info at Sofascore