Tom Saintfiet, a Belgium-born soccer coach is going to get the charge of the national booters as it was confirmed by Bangladesh Football Federation president Kazi M Salahuddin on Saturday.
Salahuddin said, "We decided to appoint him as the coach after talking with him. I think he will helpful for us to bring success in our football."
Yet the foreigner earlier gave a hint that he would be the next coach who came in the country few days ago and witnessed the semi-final matches of the ongoing Federation Cup Football-2016 at the Bangabandhu National Stadium in Dhaka.
He later met Salahuddin and BFF general secretary Abu Nayeem Shohag on Thursday and expressed his interest to coach the Bengal boys.
Tom said on Thursday, "I'm interested in Bangladesh football for many reasons. The country got talents and as far as I know, they were the SAFF football champions in 2003. Yet they are not currently doing that well. I would be happy to help them prepare for the Asian Cup qualifiers and do well in there."
"I became interested in Bangladesh football since I was in Japan in 2004 to witness the AFC Under-17 Championship where the Bengal boys also participated. From that time, I used to gather information of the country and its leagues, tournament and event," said the coach.
Before Bangladesh, Tom conducted coaching with many clubs and national teams in different countries in Africa and Middle East.
He is a former booter who began to play for his home town's club Mol Sport in 1983. Later on, he also played for Mol Sport, Wezel Sport, FC Lommelse SK, FC Verbroedering Geel, VC Westerlo and FC Boom. He put an end to his playing career in 1997.
Tom, who became the youngest coach in Belgian football at the age of 24, coached Lower Belgian Divisions, Satelitte Abidjan, B71 Sandur, Stormvogels Telstar, Al-Gharafa, BV Cloppenburg, FC Emmen, RoPS, Shabab Al-Ordon, Young Africans and Free State Stars.
The UEFA pro licence holder coach has experience of coaching seven national teams. He coached the national team in Qatar in 2004, Namibia from 2008 to 2010, Zimbabwe in 2010, Ethiopia in 2011, Yemen from 2012 to 2013, Malawi in 2013 and currently he is the head coach of Togo from 2015 to present.
Earlier, Dutch coach Lodewijk Darius de Kruif, who was also the former head coach of the team, was reappointed as the coach for the AFC Asian Cup Qualifiers for a short period of one month.