The Kings already confirmed a deal with the 33-year-old Iranian defender Shafiei, but his official signing with the club will be held after his arrival in Dhaka, likely in the first week of October as the club’s 4th and last foreign player for the coming season.

Shafiei, who played in the Persian League for Sepahan FC and FC Seoul in the South Korean K-League, will be the replacement of Kings Argentine defender Nicholas Delmonte.  

Earlier, Bashundhara Kings, recruited three forwards--Brazilians Robson Azevedo da Silva, Jonathan da Silveria Fernandes Reis and Argentine Hernan Barcos--and brought the trio in the capital on Sept 10 to join training camp for AFC Cup as well as for the ensuing football season, but the cancellation of the AFC Cup on the same day dealt a blow to them.

The country’s new domestic football season is likely to begin with the Federation Cup Football in the first week of December after completing the necessary registration formalities in October-November next.

Most of the club representatives, which earlier agreed to play the ensuing season (2020-21) without any foreign footballer, finally changed their stance in the last meeting and opined for allowing maximum four foreign booters for a team including one from Asia and all the four foreign footballers will be entitled to play in a match for the team. 

In the last season (2019-20), all the participating teams were entitled to recruit maximum five foreign players and four of them were allowed to play in a match.