KUALA LUMPUR – National footballer Kogileswaran Raj revealed that he received several offers from Malaysia Super League clubs before his latest move to Bunga Raya Damansara FC.
The 26-year-old attacking midfielder – who had plied his trade at Sri Pahang FC, Petaling Jaya FC and recently with Penang FC in the Malaysia Super League – became Bunga Raya Damansara’s latest signing along with experienced players such as Kannan Kalaiselvan, Tamilmaran Manimaran, Kugan Dhevarajan, Sunil Chandran, K. Gurusamy, Thivandaran Karnan, Khyril Muhymeen, and Prabakaran Kanadasan.
The inclusion of Kogileswaran’s expertise has proven fruitful for Bunga Raya Damansara’s attacking dynamics as he netted the first goal for his club in his debut in the A1 Semi-Pro League (previously known as the M3 League) match against Harini FT on June 2.
Bunga Raya Damansara won the match 4-0.
Speaking to Scoop, Kogileswaran said that despite the lucrative offers he received from the Super League clubs, he chose Bunga Raya Damansara as his destination as he wanted to be a pioneering figure of the newly formed club.
Bunga Raya Damansara was founded in 2021 and debuted in the third-tier M5 League in 2022 and earned promotion to the M4 League (A2 League) within a year, with an average squad age of 22 to 23.
Kogileswaran also said that he finds no difference in playing in the lower-tier league, citing that the intensity is still the same as playing in the top-flight league.
“To be honest, I did receive a lot of offers from several Super League clubs after my contract ended with Penang FC, but none of them materialised before the season kicked off.
“Just because I’m currently playing in the lower-tier league, that doesn’t mean that I can’t cope with the intensity of the Super League anymore.
“For me, all leagues are the same, and I don’t see any major difference.
“I can still play in the Super League, but I prefer helping a club to succeed from scratch, and I want to be one of the pioneer players at Bunga Raya Damansara.
“It’s simple. I enjoy helping a team qualify for the Super League,” said Kogileswaran when contacted.
At the same time, Kogileswaran also refuted the claims made by certain quarters of the football community that he joined his new club to get more game time after failing to do so in the Super League.
He further pledged to fight for his Harimau Malaya spot through consistent performance with his current club.
“Of course, I still have the urge to play for the national team under coach Kim Pan-gon as I’m still 26 years old. But I totally deny the fact or assumption that I joined Bunga Raya Damansara to get more game time.
“I have been receiving game time for years at the Super League clubs I have played in.”
“At Bunga Raya Damansara, I would like to prove myself through my performance and continue to perform well and fight for my place to be under the radar of coach Pan-gon,” Kogileswaran added.
Kogileswaran has a total of eight caps for Harimau Malaya between 2018 and 2022, scoring two goals.
He also had a brief stint (six months) in South Korea playing for Chungbuk Cheongju, thus becoming the first Malaysian to play in the Korean League.
Bunga Raya Damansara, with their home ground being the Universiti Malaya Arena Stadium, currently ranks top in the A1 League, in which 15 teams are fighting in the race to next season’s Super League.
The top two teams will play in the playoffs to determine which teams will qualify for promotion to the 2025/26 Super League season, while the bottom two teams will be relegated to the A2 League. – June 5, 2024
