Local Glory in Brunei

Hello, allow me to introduce myself.  I am Mohammad Abd Karim, 27 years old, and passionate about football.  Growing up in the tiny sultanate of Brunei Darussalam, I have always enjoyed everything football.  Sadly, from an early age, a heart condition prevented me from chasing my dreams on the field - I instead sought out all the details and science of the game - watching football almost every night, and learning how to inspire.   I have a large outgoing personality, and am really good at chatting, and it doesn't take much for me to get to know people and what their goals are.  It was through a personal relationship of my father that I received the opportunity to pursue my hobby, and volunteered to be manager for Panchor Murai, Panchor is a 14 year old amateur club on the north central side of Bandar Seri Begawan, our capital of 100,000 inhabitants in our nation.  I find it funny that I - a 27 year old - is the head manager in the top division of our nation - it makes me believe trips of glory are possible to far off lands like Japan and Arabia, via the Champions League - and though anything is possible, its more than likely I'll just pursue my hobby and have a go at competitive football.

The league has just expanded to 16 teams, and Panchor was promoted last season.  The previous manager got an IT job in Kuala Lumpur, and so left the amateur squad as the sole manager in the teams history.  We have a tough season ahead - I don't think there's a lot of talent on the team - not that there is talent in spades in Brunei anyway.  Our Superleague is about ⅔ semi-professional, ⅓ amateur with a single professional squad, Kuala Belait in the far flung town of the same name, on the far end of our nation, all of 115 km away.  It is a full staff of volunteers - we may be doing this pro bono, but at least we will all pretend to be a football squad!  We have Hafiz Amran, our 47 year old GM and Shahrul Redzuan, our 44 year old technical director - both fun to spend time with.  My assistant coach - who's a couple years older than me - and my buddy - Ishak Mohd Rashid.  We have two other bonafide coaches in Anuar Ramli who looks after our keepers and Muhd Firdaus Chuchu who helps our team with set pieces.  My youthful mates - 24 year old fitness coach Hassan Wan Omar, 26 year old performance analyst Lim Shaun, 26 year old physio Muhd Haziq Ahmad, and 24 year old sports scientist Asyraf Abdul Razak all love hanging out on the pitch in their free time.

Shockingly, despite the small population in our city and nation, our people are football mad, and we are able to field a full reserve team and youth team, which is overseen by Zainal Abidan Hamzah.  We will all share time helping to coach those squads - as they play full fixture calendars.  We've got a lot of reservists - mostly those who really have a tough time making practice regularly, most in their mid to upper 20s.  Our U21s are super young - most only 15.  Sadly, we only have 7 players who are super dedicated to training, and they constitute what I call our Senior squad:

Sulaiman Abdul Rahman - our keeper, 19 years of age, who has been with the club since he was 11.  He's got good reflexes, and loves to play as far from the goal line as possible.  He's a decent decision maker, and a decent leader.  

Muhd Azrin Untong - a left defender, 20 years of age, he too has been with the club since he was 12 years old.  Muhd has very good natural fitness and also likes to lead, he is a good decision maker, but tends to be a tad aggressive.

Ahmad Asyraf Mohd Saudian - a central defender, 22 years of age, with the club since age 14.  He has some natural fitness about him, and he accelerates well - also a sound decision maker.

Mohd Nazirul Azmi Ali - another centre back, 22 years of age, best buddies with Ahmad Saudian.  Mohd has great fitness, has strong determination, and another good decision maker.  Mohd's toughest trait is his height - just 5'-7".

Sahrul Sabut - our old man, 29 years old, and our closest thing to a striker.  Sahrul is a fairly good physical specimen, and he likes to play in the air.

Mohd Idzarul Hidayat Matassan - Wing back on the left side, 18 years old.  Mohd has got some leaping prowess - and being 6'4" is a bonafide offensive threat.  He's also naturally fit, and has good stamina.  Despite all that, he is an atrocious header - he'll get to the ball, but no telling where it will go.

Jude Ezeagu - our lone foreigner, Jude comes to us from Nigeria.  He is agile and has good pace.  At 27, he seems happy to be in Brunei, and likes to lead the attack from the midfield.  

We've got about a month until our season starts, so I've got some friendlies lined up.  We'll head accross the street from our home field to the national stadium for our first match against Darussalam Soccer Players United FC (DSP United) who play in the the third tier of our national league.  Will be weird playing in the cavernous stadium!  Will be fun to be manager for my first game!

We have received some commitments from a couple of our youth that they are going to stick with our program.  Being an amateur club, it's pretty common for there to be lots of turnover in the club - anyone who gets a sniff of some pay is off to take it.  One of our rules in Brunei that we are beholden to is honouring amateur commitments.  An amateur club can't poach another amateur clubs players if those players signed commitments, so it is a bit important for us to nail these down.  Our first was with Muhd Fitri Jaafar, a 15 year old goolkeeper.  He's fairly tall for his age at 6'-4", and has above average reflexes and natural fitness.  He has made an agreement to stay until his 17th birthday next year.

Mohd Hafiz Ramlan, 16, is an attacking midfielder who prefers to play in the centre.  He is one of the bravest players I have seen in our league, and he also has some very good acceleration.  Muhd Amirul Abdul Malek is 15 years old and plays centre back.  He also has a very strong tact for bravery, and has good natural fitness.  Lastly, 15 year old Syazani Abdul Rahim has agreed to stick with Panchor Murai.  Syazani is a young striker, who is a good teammate and has a little bit of flair.

These four youths should help strengthen the U21 side!

This is a really inspirational story! Do you have any jerseys available to buy online?