KUALA LUMPUR: Before he set foot to play in the Malaysian Premier League, PKNP FC forward Shahrel Fikri Fauzi admitted he felt somewhat nervous and unsure about the new surroundings where he would ply his trade.
However, the 23-year-old forward’s gamble paid off when he rose to the occasion in his first season in the second tier of Malaysian football by helping PKNP be among the frontrunners in the Premier League apart from marching to the quarter-finals of the Malaysia Cup last season.
In fact, the young forward also proved that he is the most lethal local finisher by scoring 20 goals in all competitions which earned him the award of Best Attacker or Forward at the National Football Awards that was held in Petaling Jaya last week.
“Before I signed up to play in the Premier League, I thought long and hard because I knew the competition would be very different and much tougher compared to the FAM League because we also needed to compete with foreign players to get into the team’s first eleven.
“After emerging as the FAM League’s top scorer during the season before last, I was more than happy to be able to replicate my good form last season in the Premier League and once and for all prove that we can achieve just about anything if we work very hard towards achieving it,” he said.
At the same time, Shahrel admits that the award he won also proved that his team can no longer be viewed as minnows.
Shahrel himself explained that the accolade which he won where he managed to beat two close rivals who play for much bigger clubs in Amri Yahyah (Selangor) and Syafiq Ahmad (Kedah) can be seen as a leap forward in terms of his team’s credibility and reputation, furthermore they will be featuring in the Suer League for the coming season.
“I see such an award as motivation which shows that playing in the second tier of Malaysian football has never been an obstacle or stumbling block to do and play as well as we can when out on the field of play.
“Many had written us off initially at the beginning of the season but I am very happy to have proved them wrong and help the team in showing everyone what we’re really capable of,” said Shahrel.