Belgian coach Top Saintfiet put an emphasis on discipline as he took over the charge of Bangladesh football team on Tuesday for their two Asian Cup Qualifying play-offs against Bhutan.
The 42-year-old coach, who is yet to formally sign the contract with the Bangladesh Football Federation, got into the business hours after his arrival on Tuesday for a short-term deal.During an introductory session with the members of preliminary national squad, Saintfiet delivered a 15-minute long speech urging the players to maintain discipline in personal lifestyle.
‘I would like to give you an example,’ Saintfiet told the players in presence of local media. ‘I am not Muslim but I don’t know the taste of beer, wine or any kind of alcohol, I never smoked in my life.’
‘I have seen videos in youTube and DVDs and this team has potential. In football we don’t win with the best players but best team. So discipline, occupation, ambition will be very important.
‘Not only skill but personality, mentality are also important. Sometimes a player with lesser quality can bring success than a player who has better quality but low discipline.’
Saintfiet said he received his contract paper from the BFF and sent it to his lawyer before putting his signature.
Despite his link with the job of Nigerian national team, Saintfiet indicated that he is ready to accept the BFF offer, albeit it is only for short term.
The official website of Nigeria Football Federation said that Saintfiet was shortlisted alongside two other coaches for the vacant post of the Super Eagles.
Saintfiet, however, claimed that Nigeria Football Federation is
yet to give him any formal offer.
‘I saw exactly what you saw,’ he said. ‘As a coach, I was without job for the last two months. I sent my CV to different federations all over the world and Nigeria was one of them and on Friday I saw I was in the short-list but I don’t have proper information about it,’ he said.
‘I have no information to go there for an interview.
‘I am here to coach Bangladesh and now going to the training.
If I am not interested with Bangladesh, I would not board on the plane yesterday and I could not be here today.’
The former Togo coach shared his plans with the team as he is going to make a three-month deal with Bangladesh.
‘The first focus is on two matches against Bhutan in September and October. When the matches are finished, hopefully with the qualification, we will work together in future.
‘First focus is on three months to try to get good results,’ said the coach, adding that he could add a few more players in the preliminary squad after seeing the matches of Bangladesh Premier League.
‘I could only see the four teams’ play, so I could not pick all players, I only picked 12 players from three matches and the rest were added by my assistant Titu [Saiful Bari].
‘In the coming weeks, there will be matches of the league and based on that new players may be added for Bhutan matches.’
Bangladesh will face Bhutan on September 6 and October 10, respectively at home and away.
Only three among the 32 players called up in
the preliminary squad — Shahedul Alam,
Nabib Newaz Jibon and Monayem Khan Raju – were absent during the introductory speech of Saintfiet.
-With New Age input
