It has been 15 years since Safee Sali last put on the Kuala Lumpur (KL) FC jersey but he will have to opportunity to do so again in the 2021 season after he inked a 1-year deal with the promoted outfit for the coming season.
The well-traveled striker will bring bags of experience to the KL side team already teeming with bundles of experience in the shape of Indra Putra Mahayudin and Shukor Adan, coming full circle in what has been an incredible footballing journey for him thus far.
He was unveiled together with Hadin Azman on Thursday and the former Malaysian international is adamant that he's still capable of contributing at the highest level despite him turning 37 in the coming year.
Sports Regime
"I’m honoured to be able to return to the team that gave me my first professional career 15 years back. To be back here in this stadium brings back a lot of memories. I hope that in the coming season, we can revive the aura of Kuala Lumpur," said Safee during the unveiling.
"I’ve already had the experience of playing with Indra and Shukor, both of whom have done everything in football. I feel that we have the right combination of seniors and juniors to give others a big challenge
"I accepted it even though it was only one year, that is not an issue. For any team to take on a player of my age, they will have their worries. So it’s up to me to prove that even though I’m only here for a year, I want to prove my worth and help the team as much as possible."
Yet with age catching up with him and the lack of playing time at prevous club Petaling Jaya City FC being another indicator, Safee revealed that he's not even close to contemplating on retirement at this point in time.
Pointing to the longevity of new club mate, Shukor and current AC Milan forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic - Safee is counting on a continued fit bill of health to allow him to emulate those two players to continue to play on when many others would have called it a day.
Malaysian Football League
"As long as I haven’t said that I will retire, I want to continue to give my all to the team that I’m playing with. And when it’s with a team that I have played before, it makes me very excited that I feel like I’m only 17 despite me being 37 in the coming season.
"We have examples in our own league. Shukor will turn 42 next year and he’s still playing in the top division, so why not others. And overseas in a striker’s position, we see Zlatan Ibrahmovic being there and still scoring goals. So I want to give a signal to the young players these days that we can be here for a long time."
The last time Safee tasted success domestically was when he was still a Johor Darul Ta'zim (JDT) player and while KL are not seen as a potential challenger to the reigning Super League champions, Safee firmly believes that the top management's target has been set a tad too low.
KL finished last in the 2019 season to drop down to the Premier League but gained promotion immediately despite finishing third in 2020 because of Terengganu FC II's inability to be promoted. Which would not make the management's target of staying in the top flight too low a bar for the team to achieve.
However having see the mixture that the squad possess, Safee is confident that if the team can play to their potential, there's a big opportunity for the club to even finish in amongst the top half of the division.
"I feel that KL now has the capability to provide a challenge to the big teams. We have Hadin, Zamir (Selamat), Paulo (Josue) who all play important roles. For KL to be in the top five is not impossible because we have the experience. Of course the management have their targets but I don’t think that is enough because we see the quality of the players in the team have the capability to bring KL to higher than that," he added.
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