When HRH Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim embarked on the Johor Darul Ta’zim project, he had already identified the players that would be the core of the new team and Safiq was very much the fulcrum of that side. Pinched from the clutches of Selangor, Safiq went on to vindicate the belief that TMJ had in him.
Between his arrival in 2013 and his departure in 2018, Safiq played an important role in helping JDT achieve unprecedented success. Five Super League titles and cup triumphs in the AFC Cup, FA Cup and Malaysia Cup more than repaid the investment that had been put in him.
While over the years, JDT as a team has evolved with different players, different coaches and different formations - Safiq’s role in the side was a defined one in that he was the chief creator, the playmaker and the leader. Very few players have the ability to drag a team to win but on his day, Safiq was capable of doing exactly that.
His precision on the ball made Safiq the designated penalty and free kick taker in the team. He also chipped in with his fair share of goals from open play, capitalising on late runs into the box or shooting from distance. But it is his vision that would be the one attribute that stands him out from the rest.
From strikers in Luciano Figueroa to Safee Sali to Martin Lucero and wide players in Gonzalo Cabrera to Amri Yahyah to Safawi Rasid - all of them looked to Safiq to pick up their runs and more often than not, the vision was matched up by the execution of the pass.
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Johor Southern Tigers
But all good things have to come to an end some day and at the age of 31 in 2018, Safiq was no longer the lynchpin of the team as the game increased in dynamism and while JDT would get away with it domestically, a less-mobile midfielder could cause the team problems in continental games.
Since the start of the 2019 season, when Safiq was granted a loan move away to Melaka to seek more playing time - JDT have been looking to fill that void. Leandro Velazquez is the nominal choice when everyone is fit and available but the Argentine contributes differently to what the former club captain did.
The solution could very well come from within in the shape of Nazmi, a player who has already been on the books at the club since 2017, another significant capture from Selangor. A brief sojourn in Portugal with Beira-Mar left plenty of questions but Nazmi managed to rediscover his form with PKNS and subsequently the Red Giants.
Chances had been few and far in between for Nazmi signing joining the Southern Tigers. Bench roles or sometimes not even in the match day squads, the now 25-year-old former Harimau Muda player has not progressed on the trajectory that many expected of him when he first gained his senior Malaysia national team call-up in 2013.
But the departure of Safiq and the fact that the AFC Champions League (ACL) only allows JDT to field three import non-Asian players and one import Asian player, meant that from 2019 onwards, Nazmi started to see more game time particularly in the more educating environment of the elite club cup competition in Asia.
This season has seen Nazmi take another step forward starting with the pre-season where he started in the majority of the matches, proving his fitness very early on. It culminated in the first ACL match at the new Sultan Ibrahim Stadium against Suwon Bluewings when he was the undeniable man-of-the-match.
Keeping hold of the ball and kept delaying to ensure that Diogo Luis Santo reached the right position before laying it off to the striker to earn a penalty and then executing a pinpoint cross for Mauricio dos Santos to score the winner, the match highlighted just what Nazmi was capable of.
Slowly but surely Nazmi was showing signs that he was coming into his own in this current JDT iteration and it was a shame that the subsequent suspension of matches due to the outbreak of the coronavirus put paid to his hopes of building on a fantastic start to the season.
It would be churlish to say that Nazmi now is ready to taken on the mantle left by the former superstar of the team but indications are that the midfielder is perhaps in the best shape since he joined JDT to be given a real go at securing a more permanent place in the side and perhaps start filling the big void left behind by Safiq.
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