Comings And Goings
It would be a fairly low-profile season-ending ceremony for the Grilled clubs, who had only
Chan Ze Han's Golden Boot to show off in the meantime. Grilled Birds will moreover meet almost a whole new set of leaguemates for the new season, despite staying. To begin with, Lawrence, KS FC had defeated Phantasm Hotspurs in their qualifier to promote, with title-chasers HEBFC Tonners FC and Merlion F.C. requesting transfers, apparently for an easier route to the top; they would be replaced by Controlar and semi-pros LAVINO QUAY respectively, which the Birds could hardly complain about.
Mayuyu AKB48 and tpyers will thus be the only familiar faces around, with Ocean's 1q and Cloud Palace automatically relegated. East Coast's Snohodez will not be expected to be much of an improvement, given their limited finances, but Serangoon strivers EF City will be joining on a high, having won their last ten competitive matches.
The Birds' Player of the Season award had to go to
Chan Ze Han, with there objectively being no competition for the club captain, in his most dominant season thus far, goal-wise. It was telling that
Bhavya Panigrahi, the closest in that respect, didn't even come to half his tally with just eight goals, with Moey and Kalki even further behind on six.
"Well, we tried." head coach
Tian Yonghang quipped, as he handed over a club record sixth POTY award to Chan. "But this contest was too difficult to fix in the end!"
Chad Thach would likewise brook no opposition in being recognized as the top U-20 star of the campaign, with his national team exploits and overall brilliance for the main squad speaking for itself. "Chad fully deserves it." fellow Young Lion
Chia Kwang Tse graciously said. "He was a pleasure to play beside all season, and I really think we're not too far from great things already."
Likewise,
Vitaliy Efendiev would reprise a clear POTY-winning record for Farmer Bunnies, as he bagged nearly half of their goals in an admittedly low-output environment. Already-left Demitri Liu was a distant second with four, and it may be some time before Efendiev will be challenged, unless
Edgar Popienia steps up. They were in contrast spoilt for choice for the youth version, but
Amirul Jufri Khairil won out with his sheer consistency, with his 21 starts matched only by Efendiev and
Gilberto Sorondo.
Grilled International would not break the mould either, with 35 year-old skipper
Safari bin Hj Jali heads and shoulders above the rest... and unfortunately still laid up with rehabilitation for several recurring injuries. 18 year-old
Remond Bergervoet caught the imagination otherwise, with his increasingly magnetic presence on the pitch.
