Peng Sought
Grilled International recruited multitalented youngster
Peng Quntai after a protracted bidding war, which cost them just over S$1.5 million in the end. Peng had impressed in his debut season with Brunei H.I. III.4 club SC Dynamo Black Tigers, and while he could do little in their losing qualifier against Italy's F.C. ATuttoSdeo, three goals and spirited performances in seven friendlies ensured that interest would be there.
This had the seventeen-going-eighteen Peng reportedly receive half a dozen inquiries even before officially getting transfer-listed, with confirmed early offers by Los Tolitas Magicos Recargados (Argentine Division Three) and FC Jean Michel AULAS (French Division Six). International's competition would however come from The_Gitaners (Spanish Division Six) and Atletico Al Barre (Italian Division Five), who were unsparing in their efforts to take Peng to Europe. Al Barre's Danish head coach Lars Hasselriis would eventually settle for Rangiroa Blue Lagoon's Félix Te Moana Alpha, after relentlessly driving the price up.
International boss
Sazwan bin Hj Muhd Salleh admitted that he might have paid slightly over the odds, but that the former Black Tigers Number Nineteen was worth it for his potential and intangibles. "His intensity just stood out. Many attackers do some pressing nowadays, but Peng keeps it up for the full ninety minutes. It reminds me of a young Tevez sometimes."
Peng was definitely not selling himself short as he insisted on claiming Umut Koza's just-vacated Number Fifteen jersey, which reportedly caused some friction within the squad - which Sazwan shrugged off. "It's good to have ambition - he just has to live up to it!"
A second transfer fell through as Sazwan declined to pursue a bid for 27 year-old former academy winger Mohd Khairul bin Nokman, who had developed well in Argentina with fifth division club Tiju2021. He would only depart after Tiju2021 fell into administration, and signed with Albanian III.8 side Steel Eagles Balkan for a transfer fee of slightly over S$3 million, over approaches by Orły Górskiego (Polish Division Four), Eiker Boys (Belgian Division Six), Sir Alex Ferguson (Turkish Division Four), Gloria Sporting Club (Moldovan Division Three) and Pumes F.C. (Spanish Division Six), among others.
"We were seriously considering it, but there were some differences about his expected role in the team we are assembling." Sazwan explained. "We wish him all the best in Albania, and the door remains open."
