GETTING THE CALL
FAM to approach two foreign players on their radar
SOME of the foreign players in the M-League will get a phone call from the FA of Malaysia (FAM) soon. Among those on FAM’s list are Terengganu’s Lee Tuck and Melaka United’s Liridon Krasniqi.
This came following last Saturday’s exco meeting whereby the FAM approved the mechanism for naturalised players through three categories: short, mid and long.
“We will approach the players who are on the list which includes Tuck and Liridon,” said FAM secretary general Stuart Ramalingam.
Lee Tuck, 31, originates from Halifax, England but is reported to have mixed Malaysian parentage. Tuck and Krasnaqi will be categorised as naturalised players
as Natxo and Kiko Insa, La’Vere Corbin Ong, Darren Lok, Junior Eldstal, Matthew Davies, Brendan Gan and Mohamadou Sumareh.
Kosovo-Albanian footballer Liridon would be considered a naturalised player like Pahang’s Mohamadou Sumareh.
Sumareh became the first foreign-born naturalised player for the country after he gave up his Gambia citizenship to wear the Malaysia shirt.
“In Liridon’s case, he has not been in the country for more than five years, so it’s only after the Fifa regulated five-year period that we will look into it but he is on our radar,” said Stuart who added that Kuala Lumpur’s Guilherme de Paula is also on the list.
Meanwhile, the technical panel for the selection of Under-18 foreign players to be converted into naturalised players (long-term plan) will be established before the end of May.
National senior team coach Tan Cheng Hoe and National Under-23 coach Ong Kim Swee are part of the panel.