Kuala Lumpur City’s Zhafri, was among 11 players in the standby list released by the Football Association of Malaysia on Tuesday, for the national team’s centralised training camp that began today (Thursday) May 19, 2022, in preparation for the Third Round of the 2023 Asian Cup qualifiers, next month in Kuala Lumpur.
This is the second time that Kim Pang Gon, the national team head coach, has placed Zhafri as a back-up, similar to the South Korean’s announcement last March 2022, where Zhafri eventually, was drafted into the Harimau Malaya training camp, replacing Darren Lok, who came down with the Covid-19 virus on the first day of the camp then.
Then, Zhafri did enough to impress the selectors and made it for the tour of Singapore, but did not feature in any of the Tri-Nation Series matches against the hosts and the Philippines, though during the last match of that trip, he earned his first appearance in the Yellow And Black in a 3-0 closed door friendly win against Japan’s Albirex Niigata, who play in Singapore”s Premier League.
The standby list serves as a support to a cast of 29 players called-up, for Kim’s first major assignment since joining the national set-up in February.
As expected, Johor DT players dominated the roll, with almost half the players (14) coming from the southerners. Negeri Sembilan and Petaling Jaya C contribute with three players each, while Sabah, Kedah DA, Selangor, Melaka Utd, S Pahang, Terengganu, have single representations. Three overseas based will also link up for the camp.
Malaysia will be playing two friendly matches against Brunei on May 27, 2022 and Hong Kong on June 1, 2022 as a final tune-up, before the Asian Cup Group E fixtures vs Turkmenistan (June 8), Bahrain (June 11) and Bangladesh (June 14) at the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil.
The final round of the continental showpiece involving 24 nations was to be in China from June 16 to July 16, 2023, but due to the rise in Covid-19 cases there, and the Chinese government’s policy of zero Covid, they relinquished the hosting rights recently. The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has reportedly sounded out Japan as a possible replacement.