KUALA LUMPUR: Thailand-based Port FC club chairman Nualphan Lamsam is scouting for several players of the Harimau Malaya (national football squad) to play for her club in the future.
More popularly known as Madam Pang, she said players like midfielder Stuart Wilkin and forward Darren Lok at the ongoing 2022 AFF Cup, were among the names that have stolen her attention.
“I think your captain number 11 (Safawi Rasid) who will be playing in Ratchaburi FC and you also have one player who will play for Buriram United (Dion Cools) who didn’t join the AFF Cup (are on the radar). Even though this AFF Cup is not in FIFA;s calendar, Port FC are still identifying the players.
“You have many good players. We saw some players and I saw from the last game your number 8 (Wilkin) and number 9 (Darren) (are good),” Madam Pang, who is Thailand’s national team manager, told a press conference here today.
Port FC are currently in seventh place out of 16 teams in the Thai League 1 competition after collecting 22 points, separated by 17 points from league leaders Buriram United who have collected 39 points.
Commenting on the role of the 59,000 Malaysian fans as the ‘12th player’ of the Harimau Malaya squad who will fill the Bukit Jalil National Stadium in the first leg semi-final match of the AFF Cup against Thailand tonight, she said they posed a big threat to the War Elephants.
Earlier, the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) had announced that only 59,000 tickets were offered for sale as 21,000 seats had to be ‘emptied’ because they were obstructed by the structure of the stage of the Jay Chou concert slated for Jan 15, which is in the process of being installed.
“That number is still a lot to me and I understand the Malaysian people want the stadium to be full. The last time we played with Singapore the player number 12 was important,” said Madam Pang. - Bernama
