Syed Saddiq disagrees with naturalized player

DBasia.news – KUALA LUMPUR: Youth and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman gave his views on disagreeing with the proposal to absorb the naturalized player into the national football team in an effort to improve the performance and empower the team.

Speaking after signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) and Ehime Badminton Association of Japan at the National Badminton Academy, here, he pointed out that he was supposed to lift and uphold the country’s number one sport.

In this regard, he said, the most important thing was to emphasize on grassroots development so that the country could produce more talented generation of talented players, thus making it possible for the Tiger of Malaya.

“Regarding the proposal to take naturalization players, I think this should be fine-tuned as I emphasize there is no easy way to achieve success.

“The grassroots development is very important because we want our own players who lift and uphold national football

“If it is not possible to get talented young players, it means my party (Ministry of Youth and Sports) and the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) have failed,” he said, commenting on the proposal to bring in foreign players who were nationalized into the Harimau Malaya squad.

Earlier, FAM president Datuk Hamidin Mohd Amin had earlier said that he planned to embark on naturalized citizenship in order to improve the performance of the Harimau Malaya squad.

Among the names of naturalized players who must have been on the Harimau Malaya squad’s management list, this is certainly the Gambia-born player, Mohamadou Sumareh.

The 23-year-old has earned Malaysian Citizenship status last April and has a brilliant record in the Malaysian League (M-League) competition since making his first appearance with the Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM) in 2013.

Previously, the governing body only gave a ‘green light’ to mixed-blooded mixed-player players in Malaysia to play with the national squad and among the mixed-blood players who represented the national squad were Matthew Davies (Pahang), Natxo Insa (Johor Darul Ta’zim), Brendan Gan (Perak) and Khair Muhammad Jefri Jones (Melaka United) ..

Meanwhile, Syed Saddiq insisted on working with FAM in the National Football Development Program (NFDP) managed by his ministry.

“I met Datuk Hamidin in Indonesia that day and talked about Malaysia’s football direction. I also ask the FAM to present their short and long term plans for us to find a meeting point.

“I want to make sure we are able to cooperate as best we can and make sure grassroots development can be improved,” he said.