Dhaka, January 2: Keeping tally of a vibrant score line in an action neighbourhood cricket match is a nightmare many of us remember well. What with the overs, runs and wickets, scorers typically keep busy during cricket matches. Football, on the other hand, does not generally encumber the scorers with so much stress. Well, unless of course there is someone like Sabina Khatun on the ground. Scorers and even the spectators are wont to lose track of the score line with Sabina loose in the opponent’s d-box. This goal machine has made it a habit of scoring four or five times every match! A conversation about Sabina is sure to start with the forward’s amazing ability to score. In a game where hat tricks are considered quite the achievement, Sabina Khatun has scored up to 16 goals in a single match.

Just recently, Sabina scored 5 times during the SAFF Women’s Championship against Afghanistan. It was her superb performance that powered Bangladesh to a 6-0 victory, which eventually helped the Bengal Tigers emerge as group champions edging past India on goal difference. The Bengal forward has more than 200 goals in local and international matches, with an unbelievable average of 2 or 3 goals per match!

Sathkhira’s Sabina started her football journey from 2009. She was crowned the highest goal scorer of the Citycell National Women’s Championship and since then played in Dhaka Metropolitan Women’s Football League. She was then named the best player of the KFC National Women’s Football. Till the end of 2014, Sabina has scored more than a hundred goals in the local leagues, and became a fixture on the national team.

It was her amazing performance that had attracted the attention of the Maldives football authorities and eventually got her an offer to play for a league outside there. This was the first time that a Bangladeshi woman was hired for an overseas football league.

Sabina did not disappoint her spectators in the scenic Indian Ocean atolls as she played for the Maldives Police Club. The goal machine scored 4 goals in the first match and an astonishing 16 goals in the second! Previously Sabina had a record of 14 goals in a single match in a Dhaka stadium. Playing six matches in Maldives, Sabina scored 37 goals, and was crowned player of the match in 5 of the matches.

Sabina Khatun has gifted Dhaka Mohammedan with innumerable wins , and has become one of the most iconic players of the women’s national team. Bangladesh’s SAFF campaign will look to borrow heavily from Sabina’s huge bag of skills.

Forward Sabina has scored goals in the SA Games, Olympic pre-qualifiers and the AFC Women’s Asian Cup 2014 group stages. Her admirable performance and leadership has paved her way to the women’s team’s captaincy.

An admirer of Brazil’s woman superstar Marta, Sabina is herself an idol for many locally. Football fans like to think of her as the ‘Bengal Messi girl’ and with her skills and passion for football, Sabina is proving to be just that.