Swadhin Bangla Football Team given warm reception

The remaining 18 members of Swadhin Bangla Football Team including team manager Tanvir Mazhar Islam Tanna and Captain Zakaria Pintoo were given a warm reception by the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) on 8 December at BFF House in Motijheel, Dhaka.
The State Minister for Youth and Sports Zahid Ahsan Russel, MP, was the chief guest of the reception programme. The BFF President also a member of the Swadhin Bangla Football Team Kazi Salahuddin was there as a special guest.
On the seventh of March in 1971, Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman delivered an extraordinary speech at the Suhrawardy Udyan. There the greatest leader of the nation asked the people to get prepared with everything they had for the ultimate struggle of liberation and that was a de facto declaration of Bangladesh's independence.
The speech lasted about 19 minutes but greatly inspired the masses. People of every sector had been getting ready in response to that speech and joined the struggle as per Bangabandhu's command after midnight of 25th March 1971. The footballers were no different.
The Swadhin Bangla Football Team is an extraordinary matter in our history. It is the first team in world history that played on foreign soil to raise international awareness and economic support for the war of liberation. It was a unique and unforgettable part of our history.  
The team toured throughout India including West Bengal, Bihar, Varanasi and Mumbai and played a total of 17 friendly matches. In 1980, Captain of the team Zakaria Pintoo spoke of 14 matches where his team had won nine, lost three and played two ties. But according to his Co-captain Protap Shankar Hazra, the team, in reality, played three more matches and won those as well.

The members of the Swadhin Bangla Football Team:
Zakaria Pintoo (Captain),  Protap Shankar Hazra (Co-captain), Kazi Mohammad Salahuddin, Sheikh Mohammad Ainul Haque, Shahjahan Alam, Mohammad  Kaikobad, Sheikh Taslim Uddin, Ali Imam, Saidur Rahman Patel, Sheikh Ashraf Ali, Khandaker Nurunnabi, AKM Nowsheruzzaman, Enayetur Rahman Khan, Sheikh Monsur Ali Lalu, Amalesh Sen, Bimal Kar, Abdul Hakim, Fazle Sadain Mridha Khokon, Shuvash Chandra Shaha, Lutfor Rahman, Mujibur Rahman, Dewan Sirajuddin Siru, Monirujjaman Peara, Nihar Kanti Das, Pran Govinda Kundu, Aniruddha Chatterjee, Abdus Sattar Miah, Biren Das Biru, Abdul Momin Joarder, Aminul Islam Suruz, Mahmudur Rashid, Sanjit Kumar Dey, Abdul Khalek and Mozammel Haque. Team Manager was Tanvir Mazhar Tanna and head coach Nani Basak.