Leicester City midfielder Hamza Choudhury will officially represent the Bangladesh football national team after getting sanction from FIFA. This makes him the first Bangladeshi to have played in the Premier League. It is a special moment for all Bangladeshis to revel in, as Hamza has been a role model for the British-Asian community in Leicestershire, leading the way for others like him to follow in his footsteps and establish a thriving career in football there. The Leicester City academy graduate, for whom football was the “first love”, boasts the achievement of being the only British-Asian player to have scored in any of the current UEFA competitions.
Son to a Bangladeshi mother and a Grenadian father, Hamza Choudhury was born and brought up in Loughborough, England. It was his youthful energy that led his mother, Rafia Dewan Chowdhury, to think of football as a way to calm him down. And since the age of six, football has been a big part of his life. Signed up by Leicester City at the age of seven, Hamza was thoroughly involved with the club, both as a fan and as a player.
His mother and stepfather (also Bangladeshi) have been the support behind him, backing him and helping him to fight through the challenges of being a British-Asian kid playing football. On the receiving end of racial abuse while playing for the U-10 team from some of the parents of the opposition team, Hamza recalls how his mother guided him to report the inappropriate behaviour to the coach and the local football association. Speaking about his mother, Hamza told to BBC, “My mum is such a strong woman, she taught me how to deal with different situations.” She also made sure he learnt how to speak Bengali. She helped him stay in touch with his Bangladeshi roots by the simple act of cooking Bangladeshi cuisine for young Hamza while in Leicestershire.
In fact, his mother used to take him to Bangladesh on holidays to spend a few weeks every year with his cousins and grandparents. These visits helped him to understand his heritage and cultural roots, a connection that he deems “very special” and also significantly educational: “It’s my heritage and my culture, so it’s nice. It’s really nice going back. I think it also humbles you as a kid and it shows you different parts of the world because when you grow up in England you can live in a bit of a bubble. To go there opens your eyes to see what kinds of struggles people actually go through, so it is humbling.”
Seeing how his fellow people strive in adversity probably moulded him into the dynamic central midfielder that he is today. And now, he wants to do anything he can to help Bangladesh become a developed football-playing nation.
Religion and divinity have also been a big influence on Hamza. A devout Sunni Muslim, the 27-year-old recalled how he and his sister used to attend evening madrassa after school to learn about the Quran: “You feel like it’s taking up your time as a child. But I’m so glad that my parents put me through it because otherwise you’re not educated in something essential. So I’m definitely glad I did it.”
In fact, prayer is an important routine before every match for Hamza: “I recite the Ayat Al-Kursi (Quranic verse entitled ‘The Throne’) before I come out of the changing room and other little duas (prayers) my mom told me to do.”
Now married to Olivia Fountain and a father of 3, Hamza has no qualms about fitting in with his new Bangladeshi teammates. He wants to bring his experience from England to help Bangladesh develop the proper infrastructure and a football powerhouse. Meanwhile, he is looking forward to integrating with his new surroundings and starting a new chapter.
