Bashundhara Kings

Bashundhara Kings arrived in the top flight already treated as an outsider by the country's two old powers, Mohammedan and Abahani, whose own rivalry had long defined Dhaka football. Backed by the Bashundhara Group, one of Bangladesh's largest conglomerates, the club was put together to break that duopoly rather than to join it politely, and results settled the argument quickly: promoted from the second tier in the 2017–18 season, Bashundhara Kings won the Bangladesh Premier League the very next year, on their first attempt in the top division.

That title opened a run few of their rivals could interrupt. The club added four more league championships in succession, through 2023–24, and paired that stretch with domestic cup form good enough to complete a full sweep of the league, the Federation Cup and the Independence Cup in the 2019–20 season. The Federation Cup alone has gone to Dhaka five times since 2020.

Squad building has leaned heavily on imported firepower, with forwards such as Hernán Barcos brought in to lead the line, while the dressing room's local anchor has been goalkeeper Anisur Rahman Zico, the club captain. Defender Topu Barman, once captain of the national team, has also passed through the ranks that Bashundhara Kings built from nothing inside a decade.

Matches are played at the Bashundhara Kings Arena, built inside the group's own residential development, with room for up to 14,000 spectators. Continental football has followed the domestic success, with entries into the AFC Cup and the AFC Challenge League testing a squad shaped almost entirely since 2013.