Sheikh Mohammad Aslam

Sheikh Mohammad Aslam (শেখ মোহাম্মদ আসলাম; born 1 March 1958), popularly known as Aslam, is a Bangladeshi former professional footballer.

Along with athletics he got involved with football, starting his journey in 1974 for Town Club in the Khulna Second Division Football League.

The next year he played for Bangladesh WAPDA and earned promotion to the First Division Football League as the runner-up.

Aslam first came to Dhaka to participate in the 100m run, long jump and javelin throw events for the Team BJMC athletics team in 1976.

While playing for WAPDA in 1976, he managed to attract interest from Dhaka's top tier.

In 1977, Aslam joined Victoria SC in the Dhaka League.

Although Aslam had started his career at the club as a defender, it was Abdur Rahim, the shrewd coach of Victoria, who saw the potential of a striker in him, and changed his position in 1979.

He played as a specialist striker and was one of the most lethal marksmen in the Dhaka domestic league during the 1980s and 1990s.

He gained fame while playing for Abahani Krira Chakra, one of Dhaka's two major football clubs.

He was a linchpin of several league-winning Abahani sides, and was the league's leading scorer several times.

With 177 goals scored in the Dhaka League, Aslam is the all-time top scorer in Bangladeshi top-flight football.

He also has 38 international goals for club and country, although many of them came during unofficial matches and are unrecorded.

Aslam has 14 official international goals for the Bangladesh national football team during his 15-year spell representing his country.

He is said to have scored more than 300 goals in domestic and international football combined.

He later worked for the Bangladesh Football Federation after retiring.

After three years at the club, he moved to Team BJMC in 1980.

Aslam came into the limelight with 13 goals for BJMC in his debut year, falling two goals short of becoming the league's top scorer.

He was the captain of BJMC in 1981 and spent another year at the club before making his big move to Mohammedan SC in 1983.

Nonetheless, after an injury-hit season, Mohammedan officials decided to release Aslam, with Aslam scoring 7 goals during his lone season at the club.

In 1984, he was snatched up by Mohammedan's arch-rivals Abahani Krira Chakra.

Aslam reached the zenith of his career while playing for Abahani, as from 1984 until 1987 he was Dhaka League's top goal scorer for a record four consecutive seasons.

During this time, he had Kazi Salahuddin, Samrat Hossain Emily, PremLal and Karim Allawi as his striker partner at different stages.

He scored 17 goals in 1984, 18 goals in 1985, 20 goals in 1986, 14 goals in 1987 and 17 goals in 1988.

His record was later broken by Muktijoddha SKC captain Imtiaz Ahmed Nakib.

From the 1984 to 1988–1989 seasons, he achieved the rare feat of scoring a hat-trick in each league for five consecutive seasons.

Alsam left a huge mark in continental football for Abahani, scoring a hat-trick as Abahani defeated India's Gurkha Brigade 4–1 in the DCM Trophy in New Delhi in 1984.

Aslam won three league trophies alongside a hat-trick in the Federation Cup (from 1985 to 1988) during his first spell at the club.

Aslam's five goals helped Abahani beat Club Valencia from Maldives 8–1 in the 1985–86 Asian Club Championship held in Colombo.

With nine goals for Abahani during the tournament, he became the highest scorer jointly with PremLal of Saunders SC of Sri Lanka.

One of Aslam's most notable goals came during the 1986 Federation Cup semi-finals against Mohammedan.

Abahani trailed 3–4 before Aslam levelled the score by dribbling past three of Mohammedan's defenders and curling a right-footed shot into the net.

PremLal scored a hat-trick in the game as Abahani won 8–5 in penalties.

In 1987, during the league-deciding match against Mohammedan, Abahani needed a single point to clinch the title, and although Aslam scored, Abahani ended up losing 3–2.

With Abahani and Mohammedan tied at the top with equal points, a play-off match was required.

On 9 September 1987, three days after their previous encounter, the title-deciding game between Abahani-Mohammedan got underway; the high-voltage game ended 0–0.

After the game ended, players and officials from both teams agreed to be crowned joint champions in order to prevent fans from attacking players.

However, the Bangladesh Football Federation did not accept the players' agreement and decided to hold a second play-off match.

Both captains Aslam and Mohammedan's Ranjit Saha were given a one-year ban, and without their forward Aslam, Abahani suffered a 2–0 defeat in the final play-off match, preventing Aslam from winning three consecutive league titles and Abahani their fourth in a row.

In the 1989–1990 season, he scored 11 goals and set a new record of becoming the top scorer five times.

He scored 103 goals for Abahani in seven consecutive seasons until the 1991–1992 season.