10 foreign players in Super League
The Number of foreign players in the TNM Super League keeps on rising as 10 have been registered this season representing almost a 100 percent increase from last season.
According to Super League of Malawi (Sulom) secretariat officer Patrick Chisale, two of the players—TN Stars’ Patrick Sia from Ghana and Burundian Sadio Kapinde of Mlatho Mponela—were refugees.
Be Forward Wanderers, Silver Strikers, Ntopwa FC and TN Stars have two players each in their fold while Mlatho Mponela and Masters Security have one each.
Nigerian and Ghanaian top the list with four players each while the other two are from Burundi and Zambia.
The Nomads have gangly Nigerian forward Babatunde Adepoju and defender Eric Atsiga from Ghana while the Central Bankers have Ghanaian striker Mike Tetteh and defender Yunus Sharrif from Nigeria.
Ntopwa have Nigerian Friday Osangie and Ng’ambe Sitali from Zambia, TN have Ghanaian Blackson Oteji and Sia while Mlatho and Masters have Kapinde and Nigerian Enock Kabagwa, respectively.
The Nomads also had a Nigerian defender Raphael Otibho who has since left the club.
Nomads chairperson Gift Mkandawire and Silver Strikers acting general secretary Innocent Kadam’manja said the foreign players add value to their teams in terms of commitment, performance work rate and discipline.
Said Mkandawire: “When we are signing them [foreign players], we look at a number of aspects and weigh if they will add value.
“Most of them come with a professional mind. Remember their target normally is not Malawi, but other developed leagues.
“So, the seriousness, work rate and discipline among others, is normally high which is imparted on our local breed. You will find that the level of skills are probably the same as local players, but what separates them most times is how one conducts himself. In fact, some locals are much better, but mostly lack maturity.”
On his part, Kadamm’anja said: “The level of commitment for foreign players is on the higher side than locals and their conduct is professional.”
Recently Sulom enforced the rule on work permit requirement for foreign players, a development that led to Wanderers failing to feature Babatunde and Atsiga in their Super League match against Civil Sporting Club.
Most of the foreign players’ deals were facilitated by Prince Jere of Touchline Sports Management Agency.
