38 year-old former Chinese youth international winger Wu Jinglong will continue his career with Italian VI.794 winners-in-waiting Atletico Vattinne, who offered S$1 million for his services. Wu's three-season stay at the Birds after his switch from Sarcastic Fringeheads thus concludes with 14 goals - including two hat-tricks, two more S-League titles to add to the two he earned with the Fringeheads, and the Ruby Challenger Cup.

This had to be quite the haul for a player who had been toiling in China's fourth division until he was thirty, when one would have expected a normal winger's peak to be all but over. Instead, Wu blossomed like a fine wine, and wound up winning half of the eight national league championships he was eligible for whilst in Singapore, while contributing heavily towards most of those campaigns.

Birds head coach Hilal Bakhtiar would gladly attest to Wu's fitness and professionalism. "Jinglong's one of the mentally toughest characters I have come across as a coach." Bakhtiar judged. "He still finishes in the front pack on our long runs, and while his legs are admittedly not what they once were, he's one of the first few I would expect to count on, in the dying minutes of a game. He'd still do a job here, but not as a starter, which was what he was - is - still aiming for."

Wu's reputation was such that Italian eighth division side F.C. Soiano had put in an inquiry almost before his availability became official, with Australian Division Four outfit fc jackaroos having also identified him as a serious option. Vattinne's French gaffer Enguerran Charnay would brook no opposition, however, as he outright gazumped the Jackaroos with a seven-digit offer.

The departing Number Eighteen would very graciously thank all at the club for their support during his stay. "I will likely be back in Singapore some day, but first, to win more things with my new club!"

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