Kuala Lumpur unable to sign foreign players for next season

Kuala Lumpur will not be hiring any foreign players for their Super League campaign at least until the April transfer window.

The city side are struggling to find players to fill their 21-man roster and the issue of imports does not even arise with poorly-funded Kuala Lumpur FA.

KL, who gave several local players a trial in Wednesday's 3-0 defeat to Police at Pulapol, meet Brazilian touring team Joga Limpo at the KLFA Stadium today with coach Razip Ismail having just one week to finalise his squad before the Dec 8 deadline for registration of players.

Joga Limpo players are hoping to be picked up by Super League teams but KL will not be one of them.

“Although the ban on foreign players is lifted this season, our limited resources right now might not allow us to start the season with foreign players,” said KLFA general secretary Nokman Mustaffa.

“But we do hope matters will improve and we will be able to gain the services of important players when the window opens in April. KLFA is open to the option of signing a Brazilian and we’ll start with playing the match and see where things take us.”

Several other teams have no such concerns with Kelantan hiring three imports for their AFC Cup campaign although only two are eligible for domestic competitions.

Ghanaian duo Emmanuel Okine and Denny Antwi are the Super League champions’ main imports while Lebanon's Mohammed Ghadar was signed just for the AFC Cup.

Selangor have also added a Lebanon international in Ramez Dayoub, Malaysia Cup champions Negri Sembilan signed Brazilian Marquem Goncalves and Emmanuel Owona of Cameroon while former Perlis striker Zacharia Simukonda of Zambia has joined T-Team.

Sabah were quick to hire Australians Brendan Gan and Michael Baird while Sarawak, promoted from the Premier League, have Cameroon duo Alexis N'Gambi and Kalle Sone.

That leaves seven teams yet to finalise their imports and this is where Joga Limpo players, including former Bayern Munich star Paolo Sergio and ex-Barcelona player Giovanni, will be hoping to impress.

“Brazilians have always been synonymous with beautiful football, with world class players constantly produced from the streets of cities such as Rio. We hope to be able to find the next world class stars playing here in the M-League, for instance,” said David Charles Leo, director of Joga Limpo's tour organisers, Pingat Gemilang.

Tickets are priced at RM20 and kick-off is at 8.45pm.