Roberts
to the rescue?
Mustapha Kamaruddin
Feb 17:
LIBERIA international striker Zizi Roberts is on
Perak’s shopping list.
Roberts, who plays for Colorado Rapids in the United States Major
League, could be the answer to the Silver State’s lack of fire-power.
Perak’s striking problems wor- sened when
newly-signed striker Allyson Marins, suffered a knee injury a couple
of days ago and may be out for six months. His future is uncertain.
One thing is for sure though, Perak need a good striker to salvage
their season. Roberts will not be the first Liberian to play for Perak.
Former Liberian international Frank Seator played for them for
one-and-half season and was successful in finding the back of the net.
However, his contract was not renewed.
Roberts seems to have better credentials than Seator. He has 35
international caps with 14 goals.
His career began with Jr Professional FC in 1993. He was sold to
Italian giants AC Milan in 1997 where he was loaned out to Serie B
outfit Monza. He played 27 games and scored five times.
In 1998, he transferred to Ra- venna, where he scored one goal in 18
games as a defender.
Subsequently, he had a brief stint with Swiss club Bellinzona, and
then moved to Ionikos of the Greek First Division in 1999, sco- ring
eight goals in 16 games.
He sustained his time in Greece with Olympiakos in 2000 before moving
to the United States in 2002. He was also voted Liberiansoccer.com
2003 Liberian Player- of-the-Year.
“Our problem up-front has worsened as Allyson may be out for six
months,” said team mana- ger Datuk Jamal Nasir Rasdi.
“We are continuing our search for capable strikers. A few are
scheduled to arrive in Ipoh soon and Zizi is among them.”
The other strikers in the list are Guinea Under-21 international
Franck Kasso and Bernard Tchou- tang of Cameroon.
Besides Marins, the Silver State have two foreign signings in
attacking midfielder Keita Mandjou and central defender Marian Ju-
has.
Coach Toni Netto has been using Mandjou as a striker and the Guinean
has not disappointed, scoring all three of Perak goals from their four
matches.
“We can’t rely on Keita alone for goals. We need the others to get in
the scoring act as well,” said Jamal Nasir.
Perak, who are fifth in the standings, will have a tricky task at hand
on Saturday when they host MPPJ.
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