Meet the first-ever Premier League footballer to represent Bangladesh: Hamza Choudhury
Leicester City midfielder Hamza Choudhury officially switched his allegiance to Bangladesh in December 2024. The footballer, who was born in Loughborough, England, represented the English U21s before but has now dedicated his international career to the country of his mother and stepfather. In doing so, he becomes the first-ever Premier League footballer to play for Bangladesh.

Initially, Choudhury dreamt of representing England, the country he was born in. Playing for the country’s youth team was a huge honour to the footballer. Senior appearances, however, never came and the whispers of him potentially representing Bangladesh started to increase as years went by. ‘’My family back home had tried more than once to persuade me to play for Bangladesh, and so it wasn’t something I never thought about. It was always in the back of my mind,’’ says the footballer to VERSUS as he looks forward to what the future holds.
Up until Choudhury was 16, he visited Bangladesh every year, sometimes even twice a year, with his family. Since becoming a professional footballer, however, he hasn’t been back. ‘’I’ve got three young children now too, and they definitely keep me busy outside of football. But I do have a lot of childhood memories from all of those years visiting family in Bangladesh.’’
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Visiting Bangladesh so often taught him a lot of valuable lessons, such as gratitude. ‘’I saw quite a lot of people who didn’t have as much as me but were just as happy, if not more. And enjoying every bit of their lives. Bangladesh taught me a lot as a kid, some things I can hopefully pass on to my own children. It’s just about gratitude and treating everyone the same. England is definitely my home but so is Bangladesh. So, to be able to go back to my country of origin and represent the people I grew up with, it means everything to me – it fills me with so much joy and pride.’’
‘Football is massive in Bangladesh’
According to Choudhury, football is also much bigger in Bangladesh than we realise. ‘’A lot of people think cricket is the main sport but I think that’s a bit of a misconception. I guess it’s because, as a nation, that’s the sport they’ve been most successful at. But I think the sport that they love most is definitely football. The national team hasn’t had that much success so far. But if you go over during the World Cup, there’s like half of Bangladesh supporting Argentina and half supporting Brazil. It gets really active, it’s a real rivalry amongst the people in Bangladesh! It’s crazy to me, but like I said, the love for football there is massive.’’
Once he makes his debut for the national team, Choudhury will be the first Bangladeshi footballer to play in the English Premier League. ‘’It’s tough to comprehend the responsibility or the weight that comes with that. Representing not just a minority of people, but a whole country. For me, I’m just proud. I’ve not really thought too much about the responsibility. I’m sort of just taking it in my stride and enjoying the journey.’’
Choudhury also hopes that he can bring some more exposure for Bangladeshi football now. ‘’There’s been quite a lot in the media recently about people in our community not having a role model in football. Not necessarily someone who looks like them, but comes from the same background or has the same upbringing. In that way, it becomes less aspirational and more attainable. They can reach the same level that I have, and hopefully even surpass it. That’s my main goal: to show people there are opportunities no matter where they start from.’’
He also hopes to see more Bangladeshi players at the top level in the future. ‘’It surprises me because I grew up with quite a few Bangladeshi kids when I was younger. A couple of them, if they weren’t as good as me, they were even better. Maybe not physically as good, but technically for sure. I can understand the difficulties of getting into football, believe me, but we need to make sure we’re providing access and opportunity to South Asian players when possible. Of course, I feel really proud to be the first Bangladeshi to play in the Premier League but hopefully, it opens up channels to other South Asian players. It’s great to be the first but it would be even better knowing I won’t be the last.’’
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