Sabahan Masran Masri signs for Petaling Jaya Rangers FC
KOTA KINABALU: Sabah’s President Cup goalkeeper Masran Masri will don the colours of the Petaling Jaya Rangers FC in the Malaysian League next season.
It was learned that the young goalkeeper has signed a oneyear contract with the Rangers, formerly known as AirAsia Allstars.
The Rangers are currently playing in the FAM Cup, the country’s third division football competition after the Super League and Premier League.
Masran, 21, is one of the most highly rated young goalkeepers the state has produced in recent years and he had earlier been tipped to join the Sabah senior team next season.
However, he opted to sign for the Rangers instead after impressing on the first day of trial.
The lad from Sepanggar first joined local football academy TABS as a 10-year-old where he was put under the watchful eyes of coach Jasrih Jabidin.
He played for the state under-19 squad (Youth Cup) from 2012-2014 before moving onto the President Cup (under-21) where he played from 2015-2017.
Masran, who helped Kota Kinabalu to the Chief Minister’s Cup title, where he also won the Best Goalkeeper award recently, started as the first choice for the Junior Rhinos under head coach Justin Ganai this season.
However, a knee injury saw him sidelined and replaced by Tekson Tubeng before the task of manning between the posts was shared between them in the latter part of the campaign.
With Masran finding new pasture, Tekson is likely to be promoted to the senior team with Masran’s younger brother, Mohd Sakri, expected to be drafted into the President Cup.
Mohd Sakri is the senior team’s third choice goalkeeper this season but still eligible to play in the President Cup, which is an under-21 competition.
Meanwhile, Masran’s new team impressed in the FAM Cup 2017 where only inferior goal difference denied them the top placing in Group B, which went to KL Sime Darby FC.
It was enough to earn them a place in the quarterfinals, although they were ousted by Shahzan Muda FC over two-leg of matches.