KUALA LUMPUR: Six young footballers, including national Under-18 star, Luqman Hakim Shamsudin, have been given the golden opportunity to train in Japan in stages beginning Tuesday.
Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) general-secretary Stuart Ramalingam (pic) said this was the outcome of the cooperation signed when the FAM delegation led by its president, Datuk Hamidin Mohd Amin who held bilateral discussions with the Japan Football Association (JFA) for five days in Tokyo which began on Aug 26.
The visit followed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on April 5. He said Luqman, Muhammad Firdaus Kaironnisam, Harith Haiqal Adam Afkar and Ali Imran Sukari will train under Cerezo Osaka from Sept 3 to 13. The second phase will see Sikh Izhan Nazrel Sikh Azman and Ahmad Zikri Mohd Khalili together with Luqman again going to the JFA Academy and FC Tokyo in October.
“The names were selected after a screening based on the players’ performance monitored by FAM, Akademi Mokhtar Dahari and the Management of the National Football Development Programme (NFPD),” he said in a statement. – Bernama