Tapas Before Opera
The most-anticipated outbound transfer for a Busy Bees trainee in some time would end slightly disappointingly for Grilled International, as their reigning Young Player of the Season Hj Tapa bin Hj Ahmad Timbang would depart for a mere S$62000. The
volume of bids would be a lot closer to what was expected, as Hj Tapa reportedly drew 31 separate offers - if some repeated - before Neapolitan VI.283 leaders Café Opera Övik-Djursholm drew him to the south of Italy, on the strength of Alexander Frascone's development program.
This will see Hj Tapa contend with the likes of Sergey Perlovskiy, Yaqoub Khoury and Leopoldas Brazinskas in defence, with the promise of ample cross-training, something that appealed to the youngster. "Mr. Frascone likes his players to always look at coming forward, which I appreciate." There would be no delay in the assignation of a squad number either, with Hj Tapa picking Number 67, for yet undisclosed reasons.
Givot bar fc of the Israeli sixth division had long tendered their interest, and were amongst the final clubs to stay in the running. Other than them, Yuninko Carlos f.c. (Spanish Division Five), KDT Team (Romanian Division Five), Kansas Boys F.C. (American Division Five), Casio '05 (Dutch Division Five), els bordegassos team (Spanish Division Six) and South West Crew (Belarus Division Two) all had confirmed bids recorded, if to no avail.
The transfer would come a couple of hours after International smashed Belait club FC Warlocks 5-0 in an all-Brunei H.I. Sapphire Challenger Cup opening round game at Burung, with the III.5 strugglers having Ermanno Tavana and Eraldo Palazzi run off the ground, in a possible sign of overexertion.
Remond Bergervoet copped a brace as
Snæbjörn Sigfússon kept his cup streak going with a 31st minute deflection, with
Umut Koza and
Phua Li Kong completing the score.
