There’s a heavy rumour saying that the Football Association of Sarawak (FAS) is looking into the possibility of signing Norshahrul Idlan Talaha, known best as ‘Mat Yo’.
According to a report by SayangSarawak, FAS president Posa Majais had approached Mat Yo verbally to have him sign for Sarawak FA during the recent AFF Suzuki Cup campaign.
Posa was at the tournament as the team manager for the Harimau Malaya AFF Suzuki team 2018.
The report by Sayang Sarawak confirmed that Mat Yo is considering the offer made.
The interesting thing however is that Sarawak FA team manager, Awang Mahyan had said that the Crocs can’t sign expensive players due to the spending limit they have for next season.
On top of that, SarawakVoice had quoted Mahyan as saying that FAS would not take any players from West Malaysia, preferring to sign Sabahans insetad.
This makes Mat Yo, an unlikely candidate to don the colours of Sarawak FA next season.
Although some may say age is also not on his side, Mat Yo had recently proven that he still has that much needed killer instinct to score goals at 32.
Mat Yo might also decide to move to Sarawak FA to find regular football as Sarawak FA does have limited options up-front.
Anyway, if Sarawak FA does sign Mat Yo, it would be a huge slap on the face for Mahyan as his decision to go for Sabahans and Sarawakians for 2019 had now been over-ruled by the president of FAS (Posa).
However, one must realize that Posa can decide to personally fund Mat Yo’s transfer and salary with his recent personal contribution of RM2 million to FAS (after being re-elected as president of FAS) proof that the man does have money to spend.
That said, if the transfer does materialize, it might be an interesting (and maybe deadly) partnership up-front for Sarawak FA since it is no secret that the Crocs would likely re-sign last season’s top scorer, Bobby Gonzales.
And there’s also a big question about Mat Yo’s willingness to play for a Liga Premier side like Sarawak FA. Mat Yo currently plays for Liga Super side Pahang FA.
There’s indeed many questions to be asked, and only FAS can answer them for now.
