Rangpur Division celebrated the Bangabandhu Gold Cup Under-17 national football championship defeating Rajshahi Division by 2-1 yesterday at the Bangabandhu National Stadium.

President Mohammad Abdul Hamid witnessed the match and distributed prizes among the participants as the chief guest. Arif Khan Joy, deputy  minister for youth and sports, Kazi Mohammed Salahuddin, president of the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) were present as special guests.       

Organised by the Ministry for Youth and Sports, four months long tournament began from Union and Upazila level from the first week of September across the country with the participation of one Lakh players and was concluded at the Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday.

In the preliminary stage, teams from union participated in the Upazila then advanced to the district level, the district champions qualified for the divisional competitions while eight division took part in the final round and Rajshahi and Rangpur moved into the final.

In a keenly contested age group match both sides  demonstrated a disciplined game when the scheduled 80 minutes match ended on 1-1 draw and during the extra 10 minutes times Rangpur Division scored the winning goal to win the Gold Cup.

Apan Chandra Roy led Rangpur Division on 44th minute but Ahad equalised the margin on 57th minute.

After the 1-1 draw during regulation time Shamim Islam slammed home the winning goal on 6th minute of 10 minutes extra period.

Apon Chandra, a promising striker opened the scoring in style when the speedy forward left behind his marker with a superb sprint before shot past the opponents’ goalkeeper Pradip Kumar in the fourth minute of the second half (1-0).

Rajshahi boys bounced back well and also levelled the margin through Ahad on 57th minute with a close range header from the goal-mouth melee (1-1).

Shamim Islam of Rangpur, who later  won the highest scorer’s prize, marked the target from inside the box with a cool header on an  Omar Faruque cross on 86th minute (2-1).