Sarkis, Remco Move On
The Farmer Bunnies'
Sarkis Krikoryan and Grilled Birds'
Remco van der Ban would be involved in transfers today, which was not at all unexpected for the former. In the case of Remco, he had originally announced his retirement, but reversed it in short order after new offers came in.
34 year-old Krikoryan would be acquired by Brazilian Division Five club S. C. Corinthians for some S$170000, making it the fourth country he will play professionally in, after Serbia, Spain and Singapore. It would always be difficult to make a career with multiple-time Armenian national champions Rebellium, where he had been a youth trainee, but he found no cause to regret the roads he eventually took.
"I would have stayed on with the Buns, but the head coach couldn't promise playing time. True, I have just started in the cup after two seasons of eight substitute appearances, but that's not what I'm after, even if there may be trophies for the taking."
Bulgarian Division Five side BF2Squad had been out to pair Krikoryan with veteran central midfielder Adrian Mihăescu, but were priced out by S. C. Corinthians. CHN Arsene FC (Chinese Division Five), Galatasaray_sk24 (Belgian Division Six), chenôve (French Division Six), OppsalFotball (Norwegian Division Six) and Wallachia Bucuresti (Romanian Division Six) were also reportedly involved in negotiations.
As for Spaniard
Remco van der Ban, the 39 year-old free-kick specialist would find a new role at Italian two-time Coppa VIII Serie winners Potamoippo, where he took the Number 81 jersey. Having taken his first coaching badge, Remco had been eager to get his second career started as soon as possible, and Potamoippo created a player-coach position. Similar offers had been made by SC COCO (Swiss Division Six) and Deportes Concepción S.A. (Chilean Division Five), but Remco preferred the environment at Potamoippo.
"No point clinging, we all have to move on." he noted breezily. "I may yet be back someday, we'll see!"
A number of youth hopefuls had also officially abandoned efforts to join the pro game, among them the Birds' Ang Boon Ah, Soh Wen Keng, Wang Feng Chu and Umar Razin Aqil, and the Buns' Tejas Gujar and Lee Jie Siong. "I can't stay in limbo forever." Gujar said. "It's a bit of a shame, but at least I can one day tell the kids, that I once lived the dream."
