Minhajul Abedin Rakib (, born 16 September 2001), also known as Ballu, is a Bangladeshi professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who plays as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

for

Bangladesh Premier League Bangladesh Premier League (), also known as Dutch-Bangla Bank BPL for sponsorship reasons, is a professional Twenty20 cricket league in Bangladesh organised by the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB). It was formed in 2011 by the BCB, after the su ...

club Mohammedan SC.

Early career

Ballu began his career at Arambagh Football Academy under the guiadance of coach Ibrahim Khalil Kala.

Club career

Ballu participated in the

Dhaka Third Division Football League Dhaka Third Division Football League (), officially known as Bashundhara Group Third Division (U-17) Football League due to sponsorship reasons and change of format, is the fifth-tier association football, football league in Bangladesh, as well a ...

in 2015 with The Muslim Institute. He began his Premier League journey with Farashganj SC during the

2017–18 Bangladesh Premier League The Bangladesh Premier League 2017, also known as BPL Season 5 or AKS BPL 2017 Powered by Shah Cement (for sponsorship reasons), was the fifth season of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), the top level professional Twenty20 cricket franchise ...

. In August 2023, Ballu played three games as a guest player for

Bangladesh Army The Bangladesh Army () is the land warfare branch, and the largest component of the Bangladesh Armed Forces. The primary mission of the Army is to defend the land of Bangladesh from any external attack. Control of personnel and operations is ad ...

in the

2023 Durand Cup The 2023 Durand Cup (also known as IndianOil Durand Cup due to sponsorship ties with the Indian Oil Corporation) was the 132nd edition of Durand Cup, the oldest association football, football tournament in Asia, and the second edition since it ...

. On 2 February 2024, Ballu scored the only goal as Mohammedan SC defeated

Bashundhara Kings Bashundhara Kings () is a professional football club based in Bashundhara Residential Area, Dhaka, Bangladesh. The club competes in the Bangladesh Premier League, the top tier of the Bangladesh football league system. The club was established i ...

in the 2023–24 Bangladesh Premier League to become the first club to defeat Kings at the Bashundhara Kings Arena. He was named

Man of the Match In team sport, a player of the match award (also known as man of the match or woman of the match) is often given to the most outstanding player in a particular match. This can be a player from either team, although the player is generally chose ...

following the games conclusion, and was also rewarded with Tk 25,000 from ''Mohapagol'', the largest supporter club of Mohammedan.

International career

Ballu captained Bangladesh at U14 level at the AFC U-14 Championship 2014 qualifiers held in

Myanmar Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has ...

. He was part of the Bangladesh U16 team that won the

2015 SAFF U-16 Championship The 2015 SAFF U-16 Championship was the third edition of the SAFF U-16 Championship, an international football competition for men's under-16 national teams organized by SAFF. The tournament was hosted by Bangladesh from 9–18 of August, 2015 at ...

, where Ballu scored in a 4–0 victory over Sri Lanka U16 during the group stages. In the same year, Ballu also represented the Bangladesh U16 team during the 2016 AFC U-16 Championship qualifiers held on home soil.

Career statistics

;Notes

Honours

Mohammedan SC *

: 2024–25 * Federation Cup:

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

Bangladesh U16 *

SAFF U-16 Championship The SAFF U-15/U-16/U-17 Championship is an annual international football competition contested by the national teams of the members of the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF). The first edition was held as ''SAFF U-16 Championship'', where most ...

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ballu, Minhajul Abedin 2001 births Living people Men's association football midfielders Bangladeshi men's footballers Bangladesh men's youth international footballers Bangladesh Premier League footballers Farashganj SC players Brothers Union players Muktijoddha Sangsad KC players Mohammedan SC (Dhaka) players Footballers from Dhaka 21st-century Bangladeshi sportsmen