Grilled Birds officially promoted academy forward Virgil Huang to the main squad today, ending weeks of speculation on the youngster's future. Huang had come to football relatively late by his own admission, only taking it up in Secondary Three, while having next to no exposure or knowledge to the game before that. His natural athleticism and instincts soon made him a standout, though, and had Wings scout Tham Beng Li prepared to stake his reputation on bringing him in.

Although always a solid choice at striker, Huang did not exactly set the scene alight, and his relatively advanced age compared to his peers would work against him in attracting outside attention. A hat-trick in his penultimate youth-level match, in a 5-3 win against Germany's blacksad young guns, finally swung the coaching staff towards his induction into the senior side.

"There's plenty for Virgil to catch up on, but he also has some inborn attributes that are difficult to cultivate." Birds assistant coach Abdul bin Jantan assessed. "We won't be able to promise much in terms of league time, but he was fine with that."

"Oh, and it helps that he's a nice fellow too."

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