KUALA Lumpur City FC’s naturalised striker Romel Morales stands a chance to don Malaysia’s jersey for the first time after being called up to attend the Harimau Malaya centralised training camp ahead of the January 12-February 10 Asian Cup finals in Doha, Qatar.
The 26-year-old from Colombia was among 26 players called up by head coach Kim Pan-gon for the centralised training camp at Wisma FAM (Football Association of Malaysia) from December 26.
Morales, who netted 15 goals in the recently concluded Malaysia League (M-League), is the fourth naturalised player in the Harimau Malaya list this time, the others being his KL City teammate Paulo Josue and Johor Darul Ta’zim (JDT) duo Endrick Dos Santos and Mohamadou Sumareh.
Based on the team list this time, Kim has retained 22 players from the 25-man squad that recorded two victories in the 2026 World Cup/2027 Asian Cup Qualifiers against Kyrgyzstan and Taiwan last month.
Apart from Morales, the other three new faces in the training squad were JDT’s Mohamed Syamer Kutty Abba and Natxo Insa, and Selangor FC’s Ahmad Khuzaimi Piee.
“A total of 19 players have been placed on standby in case there are any changes to the (26-player) list. Two players, Shahrul Nazeem Zulpakar and Azam Azmi Murad, could not be called up due to injuries,” FAM said in a statement today.
In the Asian Cup finals, Malaysia will begin their Group E campaign against Jordan on January 15, followed by Bahrain on January 20 and two-time champions and hot favourites South Korea on January 25.
The winners and runners-up of each group, together with the four best third-placed teams, will advance to the round of 16.
Kim aims to help Malaysia create history by qualifying for the round of 16 for the first time in Malaysia’s fourth appearance in this prestigious Asian football tournament.
These are the 26 players called up for the Harimau Malaya centralised training camp at Wisma FAM from December 26 ahead of next month’s Asian Cup finals:
1. Ahmad Syihan Hazmi Mohamed – JDT
2. Matthew Davies – JDT
3. La’vere Lawrence Corbin-ong – JDT
4. Endrick Dos Santos – JDT
5. Arif Aiman Mohd Hanapi – JDT
6. Muhammad Safawi Rasid – JDT
7. Muhammad Akhyar Abdul Rashid – JDT
8. Shahrul Mohd Saad – JDT
9. Muhammad Syahmi Safari – JDT
10. Mohd Afiq Fazail – JDT
11. Mohamadou Sumareh – JDT
12. Mohamed Syamer Kutty Abba – JDT
13. Natxo Insa – JDT
14. Dominic Tan – Sabah FC
15. Daniel Sang Ting – Sabah FC
16. Stuart John Wilkin – Sabah FC
17. Darren Lok – Sabah FC
18. Brendan Gan – Selangor FC
19. Mohamad Faisal Abdul Halim – Selangor FC
20. Ahmad Khuzaimi Piee – Selangor FC
21. Muhammad Azri Ab Ghani – KL City FC
22. Paulo Josue – KL City FC
23. Romel Morales – KL City FC
24. Sikh Izhan Nazrel Sikh Azman – Negeri Sembilan FC
25. Dion-johan Cools – Buriram United
26. Junior Eldstal – Dewa United FC . – Bernama, December 19, 2023.
