Five shortlisted for Malaysian deaf football team
Published on: Friday, April 19, 2019
By: GL Oh
Kota Kinabalu: Five Sabah deaf footballers have been shortlisted for the Malaysia squad to compete in the Asia Pacific tournament to be held in Hong Kong in November as well as the World Cup in 2020 where the venue has yet to be announced.Rabbino Lusius, Miekson Mailu, Edelson Deli, Zecklose Kensiong and Dojnester Francis are among the 23 players named by the selection panel for the first phase of selection scheduled in July.
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Sabah Association for the Deaf President Spencer Soo Kok Heng who disclosed the news on Thursday was very pleased with the recognition received by the five players.
He is confident at least three of the five players will make the final squad and hopes their selection will motivate other players to train harder.
Meanwhile, the five players were also in the State team that lost 3-1 to Kelantan in the final of the 10th Malaysia Deaf Football Championship at Stadium Sultan Muhammad IV, Kota Bharu, Kelantan on Thursday.
The team also lost to the hosts in last year’s final held in Ipoh and they last won the competition back in 2015.
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Earlier, Sabah who were in Group B in the preliminary rounds had it easy when they thrashed Terengganu 4-0 followed by another one-sided 5-1 win over Melaka to progress to the semi-final where they edged Negeri Sembilan 2-0.
Spencer in text messages said he was very proud of the players despite falling short in their final hurdle.
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He reckoned they could have done better if they have more financial support as the team only had 10 training sessions before the competition.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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