Curtain dropped on the seven-month long Bangladesh Premier League on Friday with Muktijoddha Sangsad Krira Chakra thrashing the already-relegated Uttar Baridahra 8-0 in the last match at the Bangabandhu National Stadium.
Nigerian striker Sunday Chizuba struck his second hat-trick of the league while Iqbal Hossain scored a brace and Mohammed Ibrahim, Chowmrin Rakhain and Eleta Benjamin netted one goal apiece to complete the rout.
This was the biggest win recorded by a team in the league that began on December 27, 2013 under a new format of three legs for the first time in the history of Bangladesh football.
Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club, who also beat Baridhara by the same margin, won the title for the second time while four-time champions Abahani Limited secured the runners-up spot.
Jamal also set a new record of point difference with runners-up Abahani as they earned 63 points from 27 matches, 12 more than their nearest challengers.
Jamal, who dominated the league from the beginning, won 19 matches, drew seven matches and lost only one match against Brothers Union on their way to the title.
Barring some bad moments, Jamal played outstanding football throughout the season to win the league comfortably.
The foreign striker trio of Jamal – Wedson Anselme, Emeka Darlington and Sony Norde – deserved the maximum credit scoring 60 goals between them out of 78 that Jamal scored in the league.
Just like the past few editions, this league was also dominated by overseas footballers with three of them taking the top three spots in the scorers’ charts.
Haitian Wedson of Jamal became the highest scorer in the league with 26 goals while his Nigerian team-mate Darlington scored 21 goals. Knwocha Kingsley, the Nigerian striker of Muktijoddha, claimed the third place.
Mohammedan’s Wahed Ahmed scored 15 goals to take fourth position, which is also the highest by a local marksman. Muktijoddha’s Mithun Chowdhury scored 14 goals.
Dethroned champions Sheikh Russell Krira Chakra endured a miserable season as they finished the league in sixth place with 32 points while Muktijoddha were third on 49 points, four ahead of Mohammedan, who finished fourth.
Uttar Baridhara, who earned promotion to the top league for the first time, were relegated from the league that saw them conceding 85 goals.
A total of 383 goals were scored in 135 matches with Jamal netting highest 78.
A total of 16 hat-tricks had been struck by nine strikers from different clubs with Darlington hitting maximum three. Wedson, Nkwocha, Sunday and Mithun all scored two hat-tricks each.
The Bangladesh Football Federation also can claim some credits as for the first time in many years a league has been completed without any serious match-fixing controversy.
-With New Age input
