Former national footballer Badal Roy died of protracted illness at a Dhaka hospital on Sunday.
Confirming the news, Bangladesh Football Federation general secretary Abu Nayeem Shohag said that the veteran footballer breathed his last at about 5:35pm at the Bangladesh Medical College hospital.
He was 63. Badal is survived by his widow, a son and a daughter. Badal’s only daughter, who lives in Australia, came to Dhaka in early November as he fell sick, said former national footballer Abdul Gaffer, a long-time friend of footballer.
The former vice-president of the Bangladesh Football Federation, a national award winner in 2009, was admitted to Asgar Ali Hospital on November 5 with breathing complications.
Badal, who was battling with stage-four liver cancer, was later shifted to Square Hospital after his condition worsened.
He was shifted to the Intensive Care Unit of the hospital on November 11.
He survived from COVID-19 infection in August and also survived from a brain haemorrhage earlier in 2017.
He underwent two successful surgeries at the Gleneagles Hospital and Medical Centre in Singapore after his brain haemorrhage.
Badal, who was born in Cumilla’s Daudkandi on July 4, 1958, became an icon of Mohammedan Sporting Club where he served for nearly two decades.
He was also the captain of the club from 1981 to 1986.
Badal’s national team and Mohammedan team-mate and the current BFF senior vice-president Abdus Salam Murshedy was emotional after the demise of his long-time friend and reminisced about the time they spent together both as players and organisers.
‘It’s a very sad day for me. I have played alongside him for most of my youth in Mohammedan. We played at the club for a long time. I have scored many goals, earned a lot of accolade and I think he was the person instrumental behind all my success,’ Murshedy told New Age on Sunday.
‘We worked together as sports organisers in Mohammedan for many years after our playing days. In the football federation we were colleagues for 12 years. We have worked together in prime years of our lives,’ he added.
Following his retirement Badal became an organiser and was the vice-president of the BFF.
He was a candidate for the president post during the recent BFF election, where he ran against Combined panel’s candidate Kazi Salahuddin.
Murshedy, who was also a member of the Combined panel, said that the election rivalry put no strain on their personal relationship.
‘It [election rivalry] didn’t affect us at all. Even during the election I told him that currently staying alive is a bigger challenge for him, not the election. I knew that he loved football and wanted to give back to the game. But that was not the right time for him.’
Prime minister Sheikh Hasina expressed deep shock to the demise of Badal.
Bangladesh Football Federation, Bangladesh Cricket Board and Bangladesh Handball Federation Bangladesh Chess Federation were among the organisation to express their condolence as the death of Badal.
Mohammedan in statement said the club would keep its flag half-mast for three days to show respect to its departed icon.
His body will be taken to Mohammedan club premises on Monday at 11:00am and Bangabandhu National Stadium at 12:00m. The body will then be taken to Central Shaheed Minar for people from all walks of life to pay their last respect to Badal.
He will be cremated at the Sabujbagh Kali Mandir Crematory later in the day. -new age
Discussion about this post