BY ZULHILMI ZAINAL Follow on Twitter
One of the matters brought up in the Selangor FA press conference held on Thursday was the wealth of young talent developed by the Red Giants, particularly this season.
Having decided to solve the exodus their senior players at the start of the season by promoting youth players, Selangor have seen several of those boys playing regularly. Winger Syahmi Safari is a first team member, defender Adam Nor Azlin has been playing regularly since last season, while Kannan Kalaiselvan and Namathevan Arusalam have started in a number of matches this season.
On top of this, the Selangor U19 side are currently third in Group B of the Youth Cup out of nine teams, while their U21 side are second out of ten teams in Group B of the President's Cup.
However, one thing is apparent, that their star players have been regularly lured away by other teams, particularly Johor Darul Ta'zim (JDT).
But the situation does not concern FAS president Dato' Sri Subahan Kamal, when asked by Goal in the presser.
"We've got a large pool of talent, we never fail to unearth them. Even if our players are scouted by other players, we are happy.
"We have good people here like Mr Omar [Omar Ali, introduced as the technical director in the press conference], Rauf [team manager Abdul Rauf Ahmad], their job is to develop (young) talents.
"Even our President's Cup and Youth Cup teams are doing well, and we have a pool of talent. We are a factory," explained Subahan.
He continued, revealing an even ambititous plan to strengthen the Red Giants' place in Malaysian football.
"I believe that next year, having a few young talents, we will be banking on more young players. Because the Malaysian FA (FAM) is facing an issue now, for example Vingada [Malaysia head coach Nelo Vingada] recently said that the country doesn't have strikers.
"We will take the lead, Selangor will see how we can support (the country) by having more local players play in the league. Maybe we will not win titles but it's okay, we will sacrifice for the country.
"We will make sure we have enough strikers. We hope one day they will be a good Selangor striker, a local boy who will be able to score goals like what Vingada is expecting," he revealed.
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