Adabala Achieves
20 year-old
Krishnan Adabala went from being turned down at neighbourhood trials to becoming a full-fledged professional footballer in three short seasons, as the homegrown passing midfielder went on a S$1.3 million transfer to Bosnian Division Five club F.K. Zeljeznicar. Adabala believes that his commitment in the air was the deciding factor. "They seem to like guys who don't shirk from challenges here."
Despite their recent earnings, however, Grilled have yet to commit in the transfer market, as they watched on the sidelines for 21 year-old former U-20 playmaker Shao Zian, but ended up not making any moves as Hungarian side LaciAngi FC made off with the former Pudgy Penguin man's signature for S$7.86 million after winning a fierce bidding war against Vietnamese club Linh lùn fc.
"We were prepared to fork out about S$6 million, given that similar foreign talents are going for five or less, so the final price was way over the odds." Stanca admitted. "Edbe FC and Arcturules evidently thought so too, as they didn't force the deal after their initial reasonable offers. It's still very hard to get the best locals, for example with Poh Wai Ying, the Blackburn Rovers Fan star winger, listed at S$12 million - but we will keep trying."
Grilled might be more fortunate with another of their targets, though, having approached Andorran club pingpongandorra with a view to taking 33 year-old former youth team midfielder Abd Rahim bin Othman back on a free transfer, as he recovers from an operation to fix a persistent knee issue. "He won't be fit for the first few games if we do get him, but Abd Rahim would do well as a backup for a couple of seasons." Stanca opined.
