Going With The Flo
Florus Romijn's eight season long tenure at the Birds came to an end this afternoon, as the 30 year-old Belgian agreed a S$5.84 million move to Finland's Midfield is ours. The sixth division risers had persuaded Romijn to pick them over historical French IV.11 side soline28, who had been the other major interested party, according to club sources. With this, Romijn becomes their second most expensive signing of all time, after Finnish forward Luukas Iso-Ahola.
Romijn had not hidden his intentions to leave, and had not featured for Grilled's last three matches.
Hovaness Noubaryan stressed that the split had been amicable. "There were no hard feelings. Florus has always been a true professional, one who has racked up a very good 49 goals in 140 starts from the wing for us, and he was simply up for a new challenge. That was all there was to it."
That it came as Grilled's fortunes had reversed precipitously could not help but cast doubt on Romijn's loyalty, however, and a fair number of the Birds' fans weren't amused, with many questioning his ambition. To these disaffected fellows, Noubaryan would throw a bone. "We have been keeping a lookout for potential replacements. It might not take long."
The Farmer Bunnies and Grilled International had been profitably-engaged in the transfer market too, if at second-hand; for the Buns, ex-academy striker Ong Kok Long would move back to Singapore from Germany's Gesundbrunnen Boys, after Geylang III.2 club Cabbages signed him in a deal worth just over S$2.5 million. Wunderkind Umakant Chakraborty - who had moved for S$5.6 million as a raw 17 year-old - is reportedly also seeking greener pastures, following two productive years at Robinson FC.
There would be more modest numbers associated with former Busy Bees player Hj Jaiz bin Luqman, who will be joining his third club after leaving Grilled International, after America's East Bay Punk Mafia and Italy's Dinamo Pippo. Hj Jaiz didn't think the frequent relocations would affect his development. "I've learnt a lot in my months with Pippo and the Mafia, and I love to travel too. What's wrong with that?"
