Marcol Incoming
Grilled Birds head coach
Tian Yonghang announced his biggest signing in over four seasons, in welcoming former Slovakian youth international custodian
Radomil Marcol from Puerto Rican Division Two challengers Capsule Corp.. Having acquired the younger Dutch talent Sieb van der Branden for ten million a fortnight ago, their Spanish gaffer Salva Solé was only too happy to let Marcol go, after reported rumblings from the 28 year-old about the club's ambitions.
While some were of the opinion that Marcol's public voicing of such dissatisfaction was unbecoming, it was well understandable to many of his supporters, who had seen his career hit plateaus both at Capsule Corp. and at The_Cormorants before that. Staying in his home country as a starter did play a big role in earning Marcol caps and recognition, but he was soon far too big a name to linger indefinitely about the fifth division, which was also about when Capsule lured him to the Americas with a bid of close to S$24.5 million.
That did bring successive Division Three championships, and steady progress towards promotion to the LPR thereafter, but this was evidently not sufficient for Marcol - a sentiment that Tian recognized and understood. "Sometimes, a guy just has to leave, and there shouldn't be any hard feelings." the Birds legend said. "We have seen many of such players pass through here, and helped some of them achieve their dreams."
There would be interest from San Marino III.16 side Lovely Unicorns too, but they would not follow up after the Birds trumped their initial S$9 million offer - itself a comedown from Capsule Corp.'s original asking price. Grilled were admittedly also considering former Luxembourg U-20 keeper Christophe Federspiel from Kuwait's Wa'at Alahf as well, but his considerably heftier S$14 million price tag was deemed insufficient to make up for being two years younger with a comparable pedigree, before going into a recent groin pull.
The Birds fans were of course over the moon at Tian's surprise acquisition. "Getting a top keeper has usually been a sign of silverware to come, for us." elderly fan Vincent Oon explained. "And Radomil definitely looks the part!"
