Chai Duro Bound
Farmer Bunnies youth player Chai Eng Ying would be the target of an increasingly-rare bidding war, and finally landed at Argentine VI.193 outfit Duro de Ganar F.C., if for the relatively modest sum of S$32,000. A confirmed playmaker by training and temperament, Chai had been hailed as having a natural knack for bringing teammates into the game, during his appearances for the Rancher Rabbits.
"Chai went above and beyond to provide options." winger teammate Ong Li Jing recalled. "You could always count on him to be around to offer himself for a pass, instead of standing and waiting for it. It was something that the coaches always pointed out, but so hard to imitate in real games."
Having been guaranteed a pre-contract by Italian Division Six club Maidz FC, Chai would shortly also obtain offers from Solidos F.C. (Argentine Division Six), talamoccia (Italian Division Four), FC Jerwey City (Swiss Division Six), APO Atalantis fc (Greek Division Four), Hielpen (Dutch Division Six) and AGF Fodboldklub (Danish Division Six). Throughout, Finnish VI.407 side Rabunovski seemed the most active and likely to snag Chai, but Duro de Ganar F.C. head coach Mauricio Gustavo Suárez would prove especially persuasive.
Rabbits scout and Chai's advisor Yip De Da mentioned Suárez's recent recruitment of other U-20 talent such as Ladislav Bulawa and Lamberto Mazzucato, as influencing Chai to take the black-and-red. "Duro had a good mix - enough trainees for them to boost each other, and not so many that the competition would be unreasonable."
"Eng Ying's success here bodes well for the future of the academy." Yip continued. "Just last week, we got our youngest recruit ever in Mak Yew Leong, and he's one serious kid about making it pro. Chai was one of his role models in deciding to come to us, and hopefully he'll take this as encouragement."
