Clearance Selloff
Four players sat in Grilled green for the last time at Sentosa Dome, applauding mutedly at the end of the exercise in demolition and then moving off seperately. Holdover from the original Grilled team,
Svarpati Attimarad, went for a song to Belgian team Olympique Cercle CF. Remembered as the natural partner for
Chen Chiew-Yen in the early days and who could have made more of himself had
Tim Hobson not supplanted him permanently with his heroics, Attimarad was also a leader in the dressing room. The board's move to transfer him caused general unhappiness, but Attimarad was at least flattered that clubs still want a "creaky player on his last legs." Arien Atheletics, Gunnerz Team and sudboys were among the local clubs desiring his intangibles, but ciappazzi of Sicily out bid them. Attimarad was set to join Rushanizam Yunos in Italy when Olympique Cercle CF butted in with a last-minute bid of S$12000. There was a lot of patting of backs as the spunky 29 year-old made his rounds of the dugout.
Marcus Vinicius Bertolin, the Portuguese goalkeeper who also dated back to the club's very start, didn't even have to pack his bags as he was picked up by Balestier club Manchester United Junior on a free transfer. "Only real difference is that I get on a different bus each morning." the low-key Bertolin commented. In fact, his rented apartment in Kembangan is closer to his new club.
Youth winger
Peter Åhsten turned out to have a shorter lifespan at the club than the buried talent of Peter Magunsson, who although never hit the big time as
Daniel Tellskär had, has yet again dodged the merciless trimming of the team planners. Åhsten didn't improve quickly enough to be groomed as aging superstar
Ma Dai-Lin's successor, and was thus farmed out to Spanish Division Five side Godallos. Joker 9 from Singapore made the first bid and was followed up by Polish team FC Wicher and Chilean Rono's team, but Godallos surpassed all with a S$294000 offer.
Last but not least of the lot, and probably the least affected, was late starter Hsiao Lee-Jyn who at 19 shone in Grilled's weekly open trials. The withdrawn Hsiao only turned to sport only as he flunked his examinations yet again, and led to an entirely improbable apprenticeship, and founding membership, at spanking new club Coriolis F.C., who signed Hsiao even as the ink on the club's acceptance certificate into the Argentinean professional leagues was drying. Had Coriolis F.C. not come in, Hsiao would have gone to Güggelbüro of Switzerland - neither of which suited Hsiao's fussing mother, who demanded to be at his side all the while. The S$204000 transfer deal and S$2500 weekly salary pleasantly surprised Hsiao, for he did not expect a tenfold increase in his current income from waiting at tables.
