In an interrupted season, Shahrel Fikri is hunting down the MSL top scorer but sees a challenge from the down South.
As everyone is well aware, the coronavirus outbreak has left football fans in Malaysia bereft of their favourite sport as the country was sent into a Movement Control Order (MCO) which restricts public gathering and unnecessary movement.
Every player is forced to stay at home just like the rest of the public and that takes away the momentum from a Super League season that is only four matches old. There’s no denying that the teams’ coffers have been hit by this situation, but for Shahrel the impact is two-fold.
After four matches, he’s already garnered three goals for him to sit just behind Terengganu FC’s Dominique Da Sylva in the top scorer standings and was in great form prior to the suspension of all matches. A position he shares with Kpah Sherman, Ivan Carlos and Ifedayo Omosuyi – all of whom are foreign players.
It has been nine long years since a local player last picked up the Golden Boot and while Shahrel is hopeful that his form can be continued when the league is eventually resumed, he also sees Johor Darul Ta’zim’s Safawi Rasid as someone who can join the race from a domestic perspective.
“I did not expect to be in this position of being the only local player among the top two scorers of the season but it is still very early and I cannot be too comfortable. If possible I would like to continue to challenge the foreign forwards but as well from a local perspective I think the challenge will come from someone like Safawi.
“In the team I have been given the trust to be one of the main attackers alongside Guilherme de Paula and it is up to me to use this chance the best I can, to continue to score goals and keep my place in the starting eleven in the team,” he told Malaysian Football League (MFL).
Shahrel joined Perak in the 2019 season after spending a season away in Thai League 1 with Nakhon Ratchasima and has not always found a place in the starting line-up easy to come by. He had to bid his time to convince Mehmet Durakovic that he’s worthy of a place right from the start.
Not even when he was banging in goal for the Malaysia national team helped changed his fortunes on the club front. But the 2020 season has looked like a different ball game for him as he was entrusted to be paired alongside Guilherme de Paula in the striking position, away from the flanks where he has normally featured for The Bos Gaurus.
Prior to the break in play, Perak are second in the table behind JDT with Shahrel already proving that he can dovetail well with Guilherme. It is not known yet when the league will resume now that the MCO has been extended another two weeks to 28 April 2020 but Shahrel will be hoping that when it does, he can continue in the same vein he left it.
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