FUN, FROLIC AND CAMARADERIE
How are national players off the field? Timesport’s Farah Azharie takes a behind-the-scenes look by talking to Sumareh
NATIONAL forward Mohamadou Sumarehsaid the relationship and camaraderie among the national players is so good that he misses his teammates every time national duty comes to an end.
Sumareh said while he and his teammates are very serious during matches, he has a lot of fun with them most of the time.
The Gambian-born Sumareh, who is Malaysia’s first naturalised player, said the team, who are a “nice bunch of people”, have become an integral and enjoyable part of his life.
Sumareh, who dons Pahang colours in the Super League, said: “Life has been generally great. For some reason, I don’t know why, I miss them so much whenever we have to go back to our own teams and I will miss them until the next time we get together for another national task.”
Previously, the prankster in Harimau Malaya was former captain Zaquan Adha Radzak but since his exclusion from the national team, Sumareh revealed that the new joker is JDT striker Safawi Rasid.
According to Sumareh, who is nicknamed “keliboy” by fans, said the national players like to joke or play pranks. Last time if Zaquan and his twin brother, Aidil Zafuan would clown around and make fun of everyone in the team.
“Things don’t always have to be serious. Now with Aidil back, the jokes will go on,” he said
Early this week, JDT defender Aidil Zafuan Radzak was recalled by coach Tan Cheng Hoe to beef up the national squad.
“Safawi is now the joker but I got him good last time. I stowed a rotten fish in his wardrobe, and can you imagine, for three nights, he couldn’t figure out where the foul smell was coming from.
“Safawi was rooming with Akhyar Rashid. They were scrambling to find out where the smell was coming from and they had to live with it for three nights.”
However, Sumareh said he wasn’t the mastermind behind the caper but pointed to his poker-faced Pahang teammate, Matthew Davies.
“It was Matt’s idea, he pushed me... outside he portrayed himself as the innocent one. If they (Safawi and Akhyar) are going to have their revenge, it would be on both of us because we (Sumareh and Matthew) are rooming together,” he said.
“Even in the changing room, there is plenty of good humour. If you see us looking serious, walking from the bus to the changing room, it is because we are aware of our surroundings due to the media and cameras. So, we have to be professional.
“That’s when everyone is listening to their music and doing their own thing.”
The 25-year-old Sumareh joked that he had also privately come up with a rating scale about “how hot” the national footballers are, based on their looks.
“Obviously, I’m the most handsome player on the team because I’m single but the players disagree but it’s undeniable, even the public can see it,” quipped Sumareh.
“But if I had to rate them, I would say the No 1 would be Matt followed by Brendan Gan (Perak) and next would be Aidil. Fourth would obviously be me because there’s no one else to fill that spot,” he said with much laughter.
“In what I call the ‘relegation zone’, we have Nazirul Naim (Hashim), J. Partiban and the last of the last in the squad would be Safawi.”
Jokes aside, Sumareh said he was quite satisfied with his performance in Malaysia’s preWorld Cup/Asian Cup qualifying campaign so far. He scored two goals as Malaysia beat Indonesia 3-2.
Sumareh said he is confident Harimau Malaya will produce a good result against Asean champions Vietnam on Oct 10 in Hanoi.
“We’ve played against Vietnam (in last year’s AFF Cup). They are a defensive team but we have a great team now.
“Playing again is La’Vere Corbin Ong and all these other players are coming in (into the national team). It’s made a huge difference because the team are now stronger. This helps because every time we get called up, it’s a better squad.
“(Coach) Cheng Hoe is serious and even my position is not safe if I don’t do well. We, players, have no negative feelings about each other because we know we have to work hard to get our positions.
“If players feel comfortable due to lack of competition for places in the squad, everyone would be complacent.
“This keeps us all working hard. From the goalkeeper all the way to the striker, no one’s position is guaranteed.”