Sunday, March 22, 2026
KL City's Long Serving Foreign Legion
Players come and go in Southeast Asian football. They rarely stick around at one club for any length of time, given the short-term nature of most, so when one can celebrate five years in one place, and a team-mate has eight years, then that is worthy of comment. Especially when both players concerned are foreigners and the club concerned has a record of not always paying players going back a few years!
So, with a tip of the hat to Kamal Azizi (2021) and Zhafri Yayha (2015) who can also look back proudly on long spells in Malaysia's capital, let's have a look at a couple of players who didn't just move to Kuala Lumpur to play football - they made it home.
In the case of Giancarlo Gallifuoco you can have a certain amount of sympathy. The Sydney-born defender spent a couple of years at Tottenham as a teenager which probably caused untold trauma. There was a time young Aussies in London migrated to Earl's Court for a laugh but this poor lad was the wrong end of the Victoria Line!
Since that time in London, he moved on to South Wales at Swansea City before returning to England and playing at both extremes of the south coast, in the west with Torquay United and in the east at Dover Athletic.
He finally arrived in Malaysia in 2021 and one of the first things he did was to help KL City end their trophy drought by lifting the Malaysia Cup under coach Bojan Hodak. And KL has been home ever since and as he makes clear on this podcast, he is absolutely loving life in Malaysia's capital! His daughter who was born in KL even speaks English with a Malaysian accent. Lah!
The Bojan influence is strong as evidenced in this interview from last year where he says 'Every coach I have had has taught me something at one point or another, but I must say that Bojan Hodak, Nenad Bacina, and Stanley Bernard have been crucial for my development in the Southeast Asian game.'
Despite the recent controversy within the Malaysian national team, GG, as he is affectionately known, has yet to receive a call-up from the Harimau Malaya, but as far as the City Boys are concerned, he is 'one of their own'!
In South East Asian terms, Fandi Ahmad is I guess what today's young, internet savvy kids would call the GOAT. To overtake the GOAT as the leading goalscorer of all time then is some bloody achievement. Yet, that is was Paulo Josue did a couple of years back.
Brazilian born Josue moved clubs nine times in his first six years in football, a Brazilian journeyman struggling to really make a mark.
When he landed in Malaysia back in 2017 I wonder what his initial reaction was. I think it's fair to say he never for a moment he thought he'd still be there nine years later and considered one of the club's greatest of all time.
And in 2023, he took Malaysian citizenship and has already represented his new country on a number of occasions.
As well as the acclaim of the fans, Josue has more tangible momentoes of his time in Malaysia having won the Premier League in his first season as well as the Malaysia Cup and runners-up in the AFC Cup in 2022.
Despite his status at the club, Josue hasn't been immune to the financial problems that plague KL City and has used his position, and yes privilege, to speak out about the issue.
It would have been easy over the years for both Gallifuoco and Jouse to move on when they saw their savings dwindle with nothing coming in from the bank, but both players stuck with the club and for that they both deserve massive credit.
Unfortunately, not the sort of credit which pays the bills!
