Sports Desk

Javier Fernandez Cabrera Martin Penato, mostly-known as Javier Cabrera, will complete his three-year as the head coach of the national team this December. The 40-year-old Spainard, who took charge of the national team in January 2022, will become the longest-serving foreign coach of the men’s side if the new executive committee of Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) extends his contract.

Cabrera’s predecessor Jamie Day is considered as the longest-serving foreign head coach of Bangladesh so far as he served here almost 41 months from May 2018 to September 2021.

Will Cabrera get a chance to break Jamie’s record? Will he become the longest-serving coach of the men in red and green? What will BFF’s newly elected EC member’s next move be regarding Cabrera?

A source from BFF, on request of anonymity, told the Daily Sun, “You will get answers within the next two weeks. The EC is currently evaluating his tenure, checking facts, data of his previous three years. I can’t disclose any details right now, but I can only say that his recent performance, especially against Bhutan and Maldives, will deeply impact his evaluation.”

After the 0-1 goal defeat to Maldives in the first game of two Bashundhara Group FIFA Tier-1 International friendlies on Wednesday, BFF EC member Md Sayeed Hassan Kanan said, “The performance was conventional. We didn’t see anything better. We’ll definitely discuss it in our next EC meeting.”

However, Bangladesh made a comeback in the second game after beating Maldives by 2-1 goals on Saturday and equalised the two Bashundhara Group FIFA Tier-1 International friendlies 1-1, though Cabrera’s chances in Bangladesh still remain 50-50 after the victory in the last match of the year.

Cabrera started his career in Bangladesh with a 0-2 defeat against Maldives, then he earned two goalless draws against Indonesia and Mongolia respectively, all of those were FIFA friendlies.

His first tournament was AFC Asian Cup 2023 qualifiers where his side ended fourth in the four-team Group E as they suffered 0-2, 1-2 and 1-4 goals defeat respectively to Bahrain, Turkmenistan and Malaysia.

After six matches, Cabrera finally had the taste of a win against Cambodia (1-0) held in September 2022 though his team suffered a fatal 1-3 defeat to Nepal in the very next match that took place within five days.

Bangladesh played a total of 35 matches including 6 unofficial games under the 40-year-old Spanish tactician in the last three years.

The stats show that the men in red and green won one, drew 2 and lost 5 in 2022, won 6, drew 5 and lost 4 in 2023 and won 4, drew one and lost 7 in 2024.

During Cabrera’s three years, Bangladesh beat Maldives three times by 3-1, 2-1 and 2-1, Bhutan two times by 3-1 and 1-0, Cambodia two times by 1-0 and 1-0, and Seychelles by 1-0 in officials matches while beat Bangladesh Premier League outfit Fortis Football Club two times by 1-0 and 3-2, Cambodian club Tiffy Army by 1-0.

The wins against Maldives and Bhutan by the same 3-1 goals margin were very crucial for Bangladesh as they reached the semifinals of SAFF Championship 2023 in Bangalore. Riding on these two wins, Bangladesh reached SAFF semis after 14 years as well as ended their win-drought against Maldives after a long 20 years.

Another win against Maldives was also crucial for Bangladesh in his tenure when they beat their favorite South Asian opponents by 2-1 in the second-leg of the FIFA World Cup 2026 and AFC Asian Cup 2027 joint qualifiers round one. Bangladesh reached the round two of the same joint qualifiers based on aggregated 3-2 as the first match was tied at 1-1.

CABRERA VS JAMIE

Cabrera has coached the national side for almost 36 months now while Jamie coached the team for almost 41 months even though he got a long lay-off due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Spaniard won 8 games, drew 6 and lost 15 defeats out of 29 official games while the 45-year-old English won 9 games, drew 5 and lost 15 out of 29 official games. Under Cabrera Bangladesh scored 20 goals and conceded 45 goals while under Jamie, they scored 22 goals and conceded 38 goals.

The stats show, both Cabrera and Jamie were almost similar in terms of win, draw and defeat ratios but the Englishman is still a step ahead of Cabrera in the equation of goal for and goal against.

Possibly for this reason, the BFF EC member said that he didn’t see much improvement in the team.