Gabonese national player among two Sabah FC imports

KOTA KINABALU, Feb 19 -- The Football Association of Sabah (Sabah FA) has confirmed two import players are set to join the Sabah Football Club (Sabah FC) for the Malaysian League this season.

Sabah FA, in a statement on its official Facebook this evening, said they were Gabonese national mid-fielder, Levy Clement Madinda who won 50 caps and six goals with the team and a defender from Macedonia, Ristro Mitrevski.

The statement said Madinda, 28, had played with a La Liga club, Celta Vigo for seven years until 2017, before continuing his career in Europe with clubs from the Turkish League, namely, Umraniyespor, Ankara Keçiörengücü SK and Giresunspor from the 2018 to the 2020 seasons.

‘’After his European stint, the time has come for Madinda to perform an arduous journey to South East Asia to join Sabah FC,’’ according to a statement from Sabah FA. 

The statement also said that Mitrevski, 29, started his career by representing a Macedonian club, FK Rabotnichki since the age of 13 and had donned the Metalburg Skopje’s jersey in the top league in North Macedonia in the 2009 to 2011 seasons.

The statement said, Mitrevski had also represented teams in Europe such as in Bosnia, Israel, Cyprus and Armenia in the 2014 to 2020 seasons.

Sabah FC also retained defender Park Taesu of South Korea who was in action with The Rhino since 2019 and had also signed up Indonesian national winger, Saddil Ramdani before this.

However, the statement said Sabah FC is scheduled to announce another import in the attacking position tomorrow.

‘’About 70 per cent of the players in the Sabah FC team for the 2021 season are natives of the state,’’ said the statement.

The following are the players for Sabah FC for the 2021 Super League to date:

Goalkeeper: Mohd Rozaimie Rohim, Robson Rendy Rining and Joslan Aping.

Defender: Rawilson Batuil, Jenius Karib, Randy Baruh, Evan Wensly Wanceslaus, Mohd Azwan Abdul Fattah, Dendy Lowa, Mafry Barang, Park Taesu and Ristro Mitrevski.

Midfield: Ricco Nigel Milus, Mohd Azzizan Nordin, Maxius Musa, Alto Linus, Hamran Peter, Ariusdius Jais, Sabri Sahar, Ummareng Bachok, Levy Clement Madinda, Saddil Ramdani and N. Thanabalan.

Strikers: Rahmanshah Marajeh, Bobby Gonzales, Mohd Amri Yahyah.

-- BERNAMA