Can Mintu revive BKSP’s fading football pipeline?

For generations, Bangladesh Krira Shikkha Protisthan (BKSP) was more than just a sports institute. In football, it was a breeding ground -- a place where raw talent was identified, developed and eventually transformed into players capable of representing the national team.

That conveyor belt, however, has slowed dramatically.

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Since the football programme was introduced at BKSP in 1986, around 29 of its footballers have gone on to represent Bangladesh at senior level. Names such as Masud Rana, Hasan Al Mamun, Firoz Mahmud Titu, Zahid Hasan Emily, Mamunul Islam, Manwar Hossain, Hemanta Vincent Biswas and others once carried the BKSP tradition onto the national stage.

Today, that pipeline appears increasingly fragile.

Sheikh Morsalin is currently the lone BKSP product regularly representing Bangladesh, a sharp contrast to the institute’s more productive past. For a country that continues to struggle to produce technically polished footballers, the decline of its most established sporting academy is more than an institutional concern -- it is a reflection of a much bigger problem in the country’s football development system.

It is against this backdrop that Zulfiker Mahmud Mintu has arrived at BKSP, bringing with him more than a decade of experience with top-tier clubs and Bangladesh’s national teams. The AFC Pro-Diploma coach took charge yesterday as the technical director of BKSP’s football department -- a position created for the first time.

The appointment could hardly have come at a more important time.

Mintu, 50, enjoyed a long playing career as a national winger before moving into coaching during the 2012-13 season. Since then, he has worked with Abahani, Sheikh Russel KC, Sheikh Jamal DC, Saif SC and Chittagong Abahani, while also serving with Bangladesh’s senior, U-23 and U-19 national teams as either head or assistant coach.

He has also obtained the highest coaching qualification offered by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).

He had previously turned down offers to become BKSP’s technical director because of club commitments. This time, with the government extending the offer and his desire to work with young players still intact, he decided to take the opportunity.

“I have been idle for the last two years and even did not get a positive response from the federation, so I accepted the offer after the government offered me. I intended to work with the youth for a long time and I think there are a lot of things to do here,” Mintu said after completing his first day at BKSP.

Bangladesh’s shortage of technically accomplished footballers has become one of the recurring themes surrounding the national team. At times, the team’s performances expose deficiencies not merely in physical ability or tactical understanding, but in the basic technical foundations of the game.

When those shortcomings repeatedly appear at senior level, questions inevitably arise about the country’s development system.

The problem cannot simply be blamed on the national-team coach or the players who make it to the final squad. By the time a footballer reaches the senior national team, many of the habits that determine his technical level have already been formed.

That makes institutions such as BKSP particularly important.

The institute currently has around 250 footballers, including female players, training across its facilities in Savar, Sylhet and Khulna under approximately 16 coaches. The challenge for Mintu, therefore, is not simply to find the next national-team player. His larger task is to improve the process that produces players in the first place.

Interestingly, Mintu does not believe BKSP necessarily needs to reinvent its curriculum.

According to him, the existing programme is already based on a modern model used by established football academies around the world. The curriculum is divided into three phases: foundation for ages 6-9, development for ages 9-14 and performance for ages 14-17.

Each phase is divided into eight-week blocks, with training concentrating on a particular aspect of development during each block.

The key, he believes, is implementation.

“I want to implement the curriculum perfectly as long as I am here,” Mintu said.

That may prove to be more difficult than it sounds.

Mintu will have to work with the existing coaching staff and help them understand and apply the curriculum, which was prepared by British coach Ray Power, who previously worked at BKSP.

This is where his technical-director role becomes significantly different from that of a conventional coach.

His job is not simply to train one age group or one team. It is to establish a common footballing language across the academy -- one that ensures a child learning the basics develops along a logical pathway before reaching the performance phase as a teenager.

If that process works, the benefits could extend beyond BKSP.

Producing large numbers of players is relatively meaningless if they arrive at senior level without the technical tools required to compete internationally. A strong football development system must produce players who can control the ball under pressure, make quick decisions, understand space, pass accurately and execute those skills consistently against stronger opposition.

That is precisely the gap Mintu wants to address during his tenure.

“Success is a long process and requires involvement of many quality coaches. But if the curriculum is followed properly with the right training designs, the budding footballers will definitely learn something new from the training,” he said.

Mintu knows that rebuilding a football academy is not a one-year project. A nine-year-old entering BKSP today may need another eight or nine years before becoming a realistic senior international prospect. Even players in the performance phase need sustained development before they can bridge the enormous gap between youth football and international football.

“The changes cannot be brought within one year,” Mintu acknowledged. “But as long as I am here, I will work at the performance phase and install the requirements a player needs to perform at the international level.”

There are also signs that the authorities are thinking beyond Mintu’s one-year appointment. BKSP has submitted a five-year football proposal to the government, with the Ministry of Youth and Sports considering its endorsement. A coach from Poland is also expected to arrive at the institute within two months.

Those developments could give Mintu something that previous attempts at reform have often lacked: continuity.

Because BKSP’s decline did not happen overnight, and its revival will not happen overnight either. But Mintu’s arrival offers an opportunity to begin.