The passing of April marked a third of this year completed and It has already been quite a 2022 for Kuala Lumpur City’s 19 year old forward Haqimi.
Firstly, at the start of the season, he caught the eye of head coach Bojan while at the Youth team, and was plucked to train with the seniors despite still learning the ropes of the game. Then, when he got his chance to don the Red & White, he impressed Brad Maloney in a pre-season friendly against Harimau Muda last February at the PKNS Sports Complex in Kelana Jaya, coming in for plenty of praise from the national Under-23’s panel of selectors during the 1-1 draw. Not too long after, the youngster made his professional debut for the City Boys at the senior level, fielded as a late substitute for Ryan under the big glaring lights of Johor DT’s stadium in the Charity Cup defeat. He has made another appearance since, as an injury time replacement for two goal hero Romel in the recent win at home over Sabah and was also an unused personnel on the bench in the 3-3 draw with Selangor on the opening day of the league season in Cheras.
Still plying his trade for the City Boys mainly in the Under-19 Youth Cup tournament, he was all too glad to answer his first ever national call-up, attending the recent 31-man training camp in preparation and selection of the Under-23 squad bound for the 2021 South East Asia (SEA) Games football competition in Vietnam, from April 19, 2022 at University Malaya’s (UM) Arena in Kuala Lumpur and PKNS’ Sports Complex in Kelana Jaya. It was clear that Maloney & Co. had not forgotten what they saw of him, two months back while they were in the last leg of their preparations for the Asean Football Federation’s (AFF) Under-23 Championship in Cambodia.
In fact during the camp, Haqimi was even presented with his baptism of fire in national colours, playing the first 50 minutes or so in the 1-2 friendly loss to Timor Leste’s Under-23 side, also SEA Games bound, last Monday at the UiTM Stadium in Shah Alam. However, with the likes of far more experienced and older players in his midst, he did not make the grade for the second stage of 24 players that Maloney announced on Wednesday.
There was not too much of disappointment when The Voice of The City Boys sought Haqimi’s thoughts on his omission, except plenty of gratefulness for the opportunity presented.
“It was a great experience for me to be training with named players amongst them Nik Akif Syahiran (attacking midfielder, Terengganu). I learnt a lot of things in terms of training, nutrition, and what not. (There was) no luck (for me) in donning the national jersey for this SEA Games, but it’s definitely a starting point for me.”
Let’s wish the boy well for his future with the City Boys and hopefully realise his dream of representing Malaysia in the next SEA Games.