Angkor City have make their first official signing as a professional club and an indication of where the club wants to be this time next year.
Introducing…
Cristevao Fernandes, the ball winning midfielder, from Timor. The 19 year old is already, an established international and recently featured in the AFF U23 competition for his country.
The midfield maestro is also cousin of Mouzinho who was the first Timor player to play in Cambodia and currently scoring goals for Vishaka.
A Statement Of Intent… ..
Director of Football for the club Gareth (Gaz) Johnson was instrumental in bringing Mouzinho to Cambodia and he played a major part in this deal meeting the young star in Timor and spending some time together. Gaz said;
“This was a real statement to Cristevao about our willingness to sign him and our ambitions. A player of his quality has clubs looking at him from all over the continent but myself and Charlie were not going lose him”
Whilst the signing isn’t going to send shockwaves through the global football world, it is a real quality signing of a fully established international player. At 19 the young man has a full career ahead of him, so should we expect to see him at the club in ten years time? Head Coach Charlie Pomroy laughed as he said:
“Definitely not! From the club side our development cycle works in three year cycles meaning no senior player will be here in three years time. We’re a gateway for young people to harness their skill sets and be the first step to the a career they want. From a football sense this boy has the world at his feet and he’ll move onto bigger things for sure. If in three years time we’re going into the AFC Cup for the first time then I’ll be begging the board to reconsider the clubs strategy, until then”
A Midfielder that has it all… ..
Cristevao is a midfield general who is making a name for himself as a player that has it all. Often found sat in front of the defensive line, breaking up play and putting his team immediately on the counter attack. His creativity and quick feet also make him an attacking threat meaning he can also play in the 8, 10 or a straight forward box to box powerhouse. When asked how he planned to utilize and improve him Pomroy said;
“His ability on transitions is where I think he’ll be most effective for us. In our league the game changes so quickly with teams giving up possession easily so if he can help improve in the situations going both ways then we will improve. In terms of improving him, we already spoke about his own feelings on weaknesses and we agreed we’d like to add more goals and assists to his game so we will work on doing that”
Player welfare top priority… .
Christevao will join us with the club at the end of October after his country play friendlies with Hong Kong. Gaz explained why the club made this call;
“We know Charlie is a big character and passionate about his football. This manifests itself in both positive and negative ways. In the past, he’ll be the first to admit, he’s been guilty of running before walking and wanting to do things the club isn’t ready to do. We have wanted to make sure that everything is in place so that when Cristevao joins us he is walking into a professionally run club with everything he needs to be then most effective possible. Even if that means not having the strongest team possible when the season starts, it just means Pomroy will have to be the coach we all know he can be and utilize what he has“
The player himself said;
“I’m very happy and excited to join Angkor City FC for this upcoming season. Thank you for helping to fulfill my dreams of playing overseas and I’ll repay your faith by doing my best”
League Two begins September 16th with Angkor City facing an opening day game with Life FC.
This article is adapted from BPVE, (https://bpve.com/) reported and edited from the great team – Cambodia Sports Review. (https://www.cambodiasportsreview.com/)
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