WAN SAD STORY
Kuzain can’t play in Sea Games due to documentation issues
WAN Kuzain Wan Kamal flew 22 hours from Illinois, the United States, to Kuala Lumpur. But it was all for nothing. He failed to make the 20-man final Sea Games squad.
Not that he was not good enough. He failed to “become” a Malaysian in time. The FA of Malaysia (FAM) said yesterday Kuzain faced documentation problems.
According to FAM, Kuzain, 21, was not listed due to documentation issues that couldn’t be resolved before the final players’ registration date (yesterday).
It is learnt that Kuzain’s passport issue could not be settled in time as he is an American-born citizen. Malaysia does not allow for dual-citizenship.
However, there were earlier indications that midfielder Kuzain, who plays for Major League Soccer’s Sporting Kansas City, would not be able to get into the final squad.
Since Kuzain joined Sea Games centralised training at the MPSJ Stadium in Subang on Monday, coach Ong Kim Swee (pic) was prepared for the eventuality that he would not be able to join the team.
On Thursday, when asked about Kuzain, Kim Swee had said: “There is still no decision on Wan Kuzain because tomorrow (yesterday), I will inform (the media) about his situation). If we can call him, great. Otherwise, we need to forget about him.”
And yesterday, Kim Swee said: “Kuzain is more of a documentation issue. I can’t comment anything else other than his documents were not settled in time before the final registration.”
It is understood that Kuzain had intended to come to Malaysia and train with Kim Swee’s team to familiarise himself with Malaysian football and to adapt to the local conditions. He will decide on his football future after failing to secure a spot on the American national team.
Kuzain was on the stands at the MPSJ Stadium on Thursday to watch the Sea Games training squad beat Australian clubs – Northern Territory (3-0) and Western Australia (2-0) in two friendly matches.
Timesport was unable to get comments from Kuzain yesterday.
The 20-man squad for the Sea Games are Haziq Nadzli, Syamer Kutty Abba, Akhyar Rashid, Adam Nor Azlin (JDT); R. Dinesh, Faisal Abdul Halim, M. Kogileswaran Raj (Pahang); Shahrul Nizam Ros Hasni, Danial Haqim Draman, Nik Akif Syahiran Nik Mat (Kelantan); Luqman Hakim Shamsudin, Harith Haiqal Adam Afkar, Umar Hakeem Suhar Rezwan (Mokhtar Dahari Academy); Danial Amier Norhisham (Felda United); Syahmi Safari (Selangor); Irfan Zakaria (Kuala Lumpur); Quentin Cheng (Central Coast Mariners); Hadi Fayyadh Abdul Razak (Fagiano Okayama); Damien Lim (PKNS) and Dominic Tan (Police Tero FC). Adam (23) and Irfan (24) are the two overaged squad on the team.