Elated Malango eyes trophies with Sharjah

Mohammad Abdullah, Staff Reporter

A jubilant Congolese footballer Ben Malango expressed his delight after joining the UAE football club Sharjah on a three-year deal on Wednesday.

Malango is a renowned striker in the African football fraternity and has represented many top clubs, including Moroccan champions Raja Casablanca.

“I am very happy with the completion of the move to Sharjah club. I have come to this club with the ambition of winning more trophies with the Asian giants,” said Malango.

“I always aspire to win more accolades and laurels with the team. I strive to achieve with the team more success and be an important cog in their plans of action.

“I have watched many of their matches before coming here and I am happy, we share same passion of winning the titles and trophies,” he added.

Sharjah announced the signing of the Congolese international on their Twitter account.

“We welcome the joining of the Congolese international “Ben Malango" (27 years old) to the Kings Castle from the Moroccan Raja Sports Club with a contract that extends for three seasons,” tweeted Sharjah.

His move was long been pending and the Kings were trying to get him on the board for quite some time, before eventually the deal was finalized.

Before arriving to Sharjah, Malango was plying his trade in the African League. He recently won the African Confederation Cup with Raja. The Moroccan champions lifted the title twice in four years as they defeated Kabylie 2-1 in the final. Malango, who was instrumental in Raja’s campaign, scored the second goal in the final of the tournament.

Earlier, owing to s stellar performance under the Emirati coach Abdulaziz Al Anbari, Sharjah began their title defence in style and were unbeaten until the ninth round in the last season.

But a sudden slump in form, coupled with a few injuries to their frontline players prompted a series of defeats as a result of which they slipped from the top position.

They could never recover from there on and finished the season on the fourth spot behind Shabab Al Ahli and nine points adrift of the champions Al Jazira.

In a bid to regain their UAE Pro League title, Sharjah are planning to launch the attack with the full throttle and a new synergy.

They are busy bolstering their squad ahead of the new season. They are adding tooth their attack as well making their defence more strong with new signings.

Recently, Sharjah pulled of a major coup by roping in Everton winger Bernard from the English Premier League for two seasons. Bernard was all praise for Sharjah after moving to the club.

“In the past few days, the fans of Sharjah showered me with a lot of love and interaction with me through social media platforms, which made me feel comfortable,” said Bernard.

“It also multiplied my enthusiasm by many fold for my first match with the team. I hope to give the same level of the performance with my fellow players what they aspire for and expect of me to live up to the expectation of the fans,” he said after completing his move.

Earlier, Sharjah also off-loaded one of their best striker and the most reliable player Igor Coronado. The Brazilian has a very impressive record with the Kings and was instrumental in their title march in the 2018-19 season.

Coronado was one of three Brazilian palyers in the Sharjah, who are their permanent feature in almost all the matches. Welliton is the other Brazilian player, who plays for Sharjah after the departure of Coronado.

Sharjah will play their third friendly match against Al Jazira on Thursday at Khalid Bin Mohammed Stadium in Al Hazana, as part of the team’s preparations for the new season’s preparation.