Reality Hits Home
Several academy graduates would officially end their bid for a professional career today, including the Farmer Bunnies' Wong Chuan Keng and Tan Nie Han, and Grilled International's Safwan bin Mahmood and Wong Tian Meng. With the exception of the 19 year-old Chuan Keng, who had specialized as a forward, the remainder had yet to commit to a primary position, and it showed.
Grilled International assistant coach Abdillah bin Mohd regretted that it had come to this, especially for Tian Meng, who had seemed such a bright prospect when he enrolled together with cousin Tian Yeng as fifteen year-olds. "It simply doesn't work out sometimes." he shrugged. "They have worked hard enough, but their development just didn't keep up with the best."
For the Buns' Wong, his main issue was having stayed too long, from the feedback received, and as for Tan, he revealed that there was a silver lining in the rejections. "My mother was never very convinced about football as a long-term job, and to be frank, I see her point."
At the other end of the age range, a 37 year-old Neeraj Muthyala joined his third club after leaving the Birds for a second time, moving from Italian seventh division side Firenze67, to Chilean sixth divisioners Jorquera for a round million bucks. Never one to bring in the big transfer bucks, Muthyala was nonetheless enjoying himself. "I'm still getting paid handsomely to kick a ball around, and in interesting new lands - what's not to like?"
