Home » Archive for Juni 2016

Palestinians Abroad: Yashir Pinto, Jonathan Cantillana secure Malaysian moves

Yashir Pinto Islame puts pen to paper with Melaka United
Malaysia's second tier (the Premier League) is fast becoming a destination of choice for many of Palestine's top attackers. Earlier this year, Matías Jadue swapped the Chilean third tier for PKNS FC and a glut of goals saw his side make a run to the Malaysian FA Cup final where they lost to defending champions JDT. 

Now, Jadue will be joined by two of his countrymen who will also try and fight for promotion to the top tier- the Malaysian Super League. 

More after the jump...

This week both Jonathan Cantillana and Yashir Pinto Islame were unveiled by their new clubs. 

Cantillana will join Kuala Lumpur FA on a one-year deal. The capital's side are two points above PKNS on 25 points and two points behind leaders Melaka United. 

Those very leaders have bolstered their promotion credentials by adding Yashir Pinto Islame. After notching 12 goals in 22 games with Curicó Unido, Yashir should find the goal with some regularity. 

Jadue's league goal scoring clip has seen him notch 8 goals in 10 league appearances. 

Between Jadue, Cantillana, and Pinto the Malaysian Premier League now has three players with six 2018 World Cup qualifying goals to their name. 

For the sake of comparison, that's twice as many goals as the Malaysian national team registered during their futile World Cup qualifying campaign. 

The current contingent of foreign players in the Malaysian Super League has only four goals between them (courtesy of Safuwan Baharudin of Singapore and Faysal Shayesteh of Afghanistan). 

Which makes these moves rather perplexing but perhaps all three players see their current clubs as stepping stones to bigger clubs in the region. 

Related Posts:

Palestine to train in Algeria ahead of Tajikistan friendlies


As per various news outlets, Palestine's national football team is set to train in Algeria in August. Abdel Nasser Barakat's side will scrimmage against various club sides in order to further build preparedness ahead of 2019 AFC Asian Cup qualifying in March.

Palestine will participate in its first matches since 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying in September with a friendly against Tajikistan. The location of the September 6th friendly has yet to be announced.

Palestine has booked a date with the same opposition in the following FIFA window as well. That encounter will take place in the Tajik capital of Dushanbe on October 2nd.

Palestine and Tajikistan have never met at senior level. The Olympic sides met at the Asian Games in Incheon two years ago. An encounter best remembered for this scintillating strike from Hilal Mousa:




Related Posts:

AFC accepts Oryxes' appeal, rejects Ahli


A decision by the Asian Football Confederation  Appeal Committee  has reversed the result of the Al Wahda (SYR) vs Al Dhahria (PLE) AFC Cup match, which was scheduled to be played on March 9, 2016.
The Committee decided that Al Wahda, not Al Dharia, was the party having caused the cancellation of the match. This means that the final score of the match is Al Wahda 0, Al Dharia 3.
A large contingent of Palestinian players were denied entry into Lebanon after it was discovered they also held Israeli citizenship. This despite the fact that many of the same players had entered Lebanon in August when the national team played Lebanon to a scoreless draw in Sidon. 
The match means that Palestine effectively finished second place in the group. Al-Wahda were 4-0 losers to Al-Ahed (LIB) in the Round of 16. No announcement was made as to a replay of that fixture with Al Dharia in their place. 
The AFC Disciplinary Committee had previously ordered the match to be forfeited in favor of Al Wahda.
The return fixture slated to be played in Palestine was awarded to Al-Wahda by a 3-0 administrative scoreline.
Meanwhile, the AFC rejected Ahli Al-Khaleel's appeal effectively continuing the policy of accommodating teams who choose not to play in Palestine. 

Related Posts: