PETALING JAYA: Football star Faisal Halim, who was the victim of a horrifying acid attack last year, is now sad about the plight of his peers.
Faisal, who plays for Selangor, said today he has been distressed by the struggles of his fellow players, many of whom are jobless or are without clubs as the 2025-2026 M-League season starts next week.
The local football fraternity knows this has much to do with the influx of foreign players into the M-League.
“I’m sad to see that some of my friends, including senior players, still haven’t found teams,” said the 27-year-old Faisal.
“Even if they’re not with me at Selangor, we’ve all been working hard since we were young. Football is our careers, and we have to keep going.” Faisal told Timesport at the Sultan of Selangor‘s Cup event at a shopping centre in Petaling Jaya today.
However, he welcomed the Malaysian Football League’s decision to allow clubs to register three more local players this season.
Hopefully, the move will help many out-of-contract local footballers, and offset the impact of foreign players flooding the M-League.
“With the increase in imports (15 foreign players per M-League team), we knew local players were going to be left out,” said Faisal.
“Now at least with this extra quota, there’s hope. Even if they don’t get to play right away (first 11), they’ll have a team to train with, a job to keep them going, and a future to build.”
© New Straits Times Press (M) Bhd
