View source for Kings FC, Malta

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[[Category:India |K ]]
[[Category:Sports |K ]]
[[Category:Malta |K ]]

=The Kerala connection=
[https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/a-charming-malayali/maltese-football-story/articleshow/103647018.cms?from=mdr  Rayson Tennyson, Sep 15, 2023: ''The Times of India'']

KOCHI: Ok, so it’s a third division amateur club in a country ranked 171 by Fifa; for comparison, India is ranked 99. But it’s still football – and when did you last hear a bunch of Indians establishing a football club in Europe and then becoming runners-up in their debut season?

The club is Edex Kings FC, the country is Malta, known for regularly conceding many goals when it plays most European teams, and the Indian footballers are all from Kerala, known for its passionate football following. The champions all have regular jobs in Malta – as waiters, lab technicians, teachers, taxi drivers and electricians.

The Keralites who founded Edex King had gone to Malta for the same reasons thousands of Indians go abroad – to earn a living. But football was never far from their mind, and so in 2015 the club was born. 

The idea was to play recreational football, five-a-side or seven-a-side. Money was a problem, as it is for many amateur clubs. But in 2018, Ligo John of the Edex Group, who owns the Real Malabar FC club in Kerala, invested in the ‘Malayali football club in Malta’. “Last year, we joined the third division of the Malta Amateur League to test ourselves. We didn’t expect to finish as the runners-up in our debut season,” said Vibin Xavier, co-owner and president of Edex Kings FC.

There may also be a sort of a Maltese/Malayali star in the making. Edex skipper Shamzeer Muhammed has been headhunted by Midna Knights FC, a professional club who play in the Maltese first division. Shamzeer is the first Indian player to sign for a professional club in Malta.

His amateur teammates are delighted. And although they are mostly fellow Malayalis, the 26-member team also has players from Pakistan, as well as from World Cup-playing countries like Argentina, Colombia and Nigeria. 
Edex, which will now play in Malta’s second division, has big plans. It’s recruiting more professional players from Kerala. Among them is a footballer who played for Kerala’s Santosh Trophy team last season.

“The club will bear all expenses of the recruited players once they land in Malta. This includes providing the younger players free higher education in Malta, which will help them get a job once they end their playing career,” said Prajil Kumar, the international co-ordinator of Edex Kings FC.

The club has also entered into a partnership with UAE third division club D-Gardens. The two clubs will have a player-exchange programme and will also share training facilities. The newly recruited players will undergo a six-month training stint in Dubai before moving to Malta.

Edex’s players are understandably delighted. Alwyn Varghese from Thrissur used to play football for local clubs before going to Malta a year ago on a work visa and got employed as a maintenance technician at a hotel there. “I can earn a living and continue my footballing career in Malta,” the midfielder told TOI from Valletta.

Shuhaib, from Kadappadi in Malappuram, reached Malta five years back and works as a taxi driver. He says driving a cab and playing league football isn’t difficult. “In Kerala we used to play football after school. Now we play football after work. That’s the only difference,” he says.

How many cabbies can claim to be champion footballers – that, really, sums up the charm of the Maltese third division toppers.