In 1969, the club contracted a strong team for its first season in the top-flight, which included Pakistani internationals such as Yusuf Junior, Abdul Ghafoor and Muhammad Umer. Aside from the Makrani talent, Bengali players like Abdul Hakim and Shahjahan Ahmed played integral roles as the club finished league runners-up behind Mohammedan SC.[4]
In 1974, the club again finished runners-up in the Dhaka League, this time behind Abahani Krira Chakra. However, there was controversy surrounding the champions, as in the last match of the league Dilkusha faced Abahani's arch-rivals Mohammedan, who planned to lose willingly to deny Abahani the championship. Mohammedan needed to lose by a four-goal margin to hand Dilkusha the trophy, and they were succeeding in their goal. But one of their foreign recruits, not knowing Mohammedan's intentions, scored a long-ranger. Nonetheless, Dilkusha still went on to win the match 5–1. The result meant that Dilkusha were still champions, but FIFA rules were not followed as instead of using goal difference to differentiate positions, the league used average goal scored, thus denying Dilkusha their first league trophy.[2]
Throughout the seventies, the club produced many talented players such as, Golam Shahid Neelu who was the 1974 Dhaka League top scorer with 16 goals, while Bangladesh's leading goalscorer Ashrafuddin Ahmed Chunnu also represented the club in 1973, before moving to Rahmatganj MFS.[5] Nonetheless, the club suffered relegation to the Second Division in 1984, failing to return to the First Division since.[6]
Casino scandal
In September 2019, Dilkusha were one of the clubs from the Motijheel area of Dhaka, who were found guilty of having an illegal casino inside of their clubhouse.[7]
The players below had senior international cap(s) for their respective countries. Players whose name is listed, represented their countries before or after playing for Dilkusha SC.
Alam, Masud (2017). ফুটবলের গল্প ফুটবলারদের গল্প (transl. The story of football the story of footballers) (in Bengali). Bishhoshahitto Bhobon. ISBN9789849134688.
