NATIONAL player, Faisal Halim, is determined to repay the trust of head coach Peter Cklamovski by helping Harimau Malaya achieve success if given an opportunity to join the squad for upcoming matches.
According to Faisal, he is 100 percent ready and will give his best, acting as a morale booster for the team to play with more spirit and achieve encouraging results.
The Selangor FC winger said this is the second call-up from the Australian-born head coach, and he feels it was time for him to regain what he had missed previously.
“Alhamdulillah...I received another call from coach (Cklamovski) and I am determined to rediscover my previous rhythm of play... in fact, now I am more enthusiastic and want to forget the dark moments that happened.
“However, I leave it to the coach... if he (Cklamovski) feels I’m not ready, I have no problem, but as a player, I will give my best,“ he told reporters at a press conference for the Tier 1 international friendly against Cape Verde and the second Group F match of the 2026/2027 Asia Cup Qualifiers at the National Stadium.
Faisal added that the match on May 29 is also an important one for the squad as preparation to face Vietnam, a team ranked higher than the national team, and demands a better performance.
“That’s just ranking, we will display quality performance on the field later, we will be able to gauge the team’s performance whether we need to improve or if we are ready enough to face Vietnam,“ he said.
Meanwhile, Cklamovski said he was happy with the training held in Johor Bahru which was divided into three phases and has now entered the second phase with more focus on forming game formations and tactical implementation, this time involving several Johor Darul Ta’zim (JDT) players.
He also commented that Endrick Dos Santos’ presence in the training camp seemed less fit and only trained for one day and needed to be rested for a while to undergo the recovery process, while goalkeeper, Ahmad Syihan Hazmi Mohamed, reported himself in satisfactory physical condition.
“For the presence of legacy players Rodrigo Holgado and Gabriel Palmeiro who first joined the Harimau Malaya training camp in preparation for the match against Vietnam in the third round of Group F of the 2027 Asian Cup Qualifiers, it is still too early to evaluate players who have just undergone training.
“For goalkeepers, five players were called up for training but only four people underwent training for the second phase before facing Cape Verde on May 29. Haziq (Nadzli) will be released for a while to join the Asian All-Stars squad against Manchester United, on May 28 and will be called back,“ he said.
