Maldives National Football Team has departed to Malaysia to play a friendly match against their team this weekend.
While the team departed on Wednesday, the friendly match between Maldives and Malaysia is scheduled to begin at 17:45 hrs on Saturday.
Football rankings show Maldives on the 151st spot, and although Malaysia is on the 169th spot currently, of late, the team has been improvising and has been taking wins in several matches.
While the Football Association of the Maldives is seen organizing many promotion activities to boost football in the following year, the association states that they are preparing to schedule friendly matches for the national team in the coming year and that they are targeting to schedule matches with teams with high rankings.
The 20-player squad that departed to Malaysia comprises of six players from Maziya Sports and Recreation Club, two from TC Sports Club, five from Club Eagles, four from New Radiant Sports Club, two from Club Green Street and one player from Victory Sports Club.
It is notable that the squad comprises mostly of the same ones that helped bring home the SAFF Suzuki Cup title hosted in Bangladesh, this September. The only ones from the squad that will not be playing this match are NRSC’s Riham Abdul Ghani, Maziya’s Mujthaz Mohamed and Victory’s Tholal Hassan.
While these players have been exempted from this match, Ahmed Naaim from Club Eagles and Abdulla Yameen from Green Street, who were exempt for the Suzuki Cup squad, will be playing against Malaysia on Saturday.
It is notable that football star Ali Ashfaq, who was also exempted from the Suzuki Cup squad, has also been exempted from the friendly against Malaysia. However, while Ashfaq scored 35 goals this season, he has been showing an excellent performance in the league.
Other players who have been showing an extraordinary performance in the league, but have been exempted from the squad include Midfielder from Club Eagles, Hassan Raif as well as TC’s Mohamed Samir.
