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sport
interview
Winning
the League for Floriana
is my aim
22-year
old George Mallia is one of the best strikers on the island.
At the young age of 17, he won the Championship with his former
club Sliema Wanderers, and is now a Floriana player. George
Mallia, speaks to RAY ABDILLA about his dreams and hopes for
the future. |
Like
any other Maltese player Floriana striker George Mallia wants to
play abroad. He feels that moving onto the bigger leagues, he will
improve his standard. But his priority is to win the league with
Floriana.
"It is not going to be an easy task, but if we don't win, it
won't be the end of the world. We are a young side and we all agree
that potentially we can realise our dream in a couple of years time,"
George said.
Like all players Mallia had his ups and downs. He had problems with
his former club Sliema Wanderers but found happiness with rivals
Floriana. Injury and suspension led him to miss a substantial number
of matches, despite his young age.
In mid-March last year, Mallia missed the remainder of the season,
following a hefty four-month suspension, resulting from incidents
in an Under-21 league match against Pietà Hotspurs, at the
Ta' Qali Centenary stadium.
His dismissal earned him a one-match suspension, but the Malta FA
Disciplinary Commissioner meted out a further four-month ban (till
July 14) after Mallia allegedly over-reacted to his sending-off.
The ban ruled Mallia out of all domestic football competitions.
Despite these mishaps, his return this season, came with a bang.
Last September, the Midas touch which seemed to have deserted the
Floriana striker, returned. After missing a sitter in Malta's 1-0
defeat against Northern Ireland in Belfast, Mallia found his scoring
boots as he netted two goals in a highly-entertaining 2-2 draw against
champions Birkirkara.
George Mallia, born the 10 October 1978, became interested in football
at the age of eight. His father used to take him at Marsa to the
Skola Sport, where many children meet every Saturday, for training.
This turned out to be a blessing for George, as coaches Twanny Rocco
and Leli Fabri immediately noticed his potential, asking him to
join Sliema Wanderers. After five years of attending Skola Sport,
and his father being a Sliema supporter, George did not hesitate
to accept the offer.
As at the time no player could play for a side outside his district,
George unfortunately had to wait two years before playing for two
years.
He played in some friendly matches and always did well until it
was finally his time to play for the Blues. He started out in the
Under 13's and 14's. "I will never forget these days as Is
till consider them to be as the best of my life.," George stated.
At the age of 17 George made the Sliema squad, debuting against
St Patrick, and scoring his first league goal against Birkirkara
in the same year Sliema won the Championship.
Under the leadership of Mark Miller, Robert Kelly and then the Martin
Gregory/Carmel Busuttil partnership George played for an additional
two years with the Blues.
"I remember that President Robert Arrigo wanted to inject some
new life in the team by buying a couple of new strikers. There was
talk of Ivan Woods, Mark Galea and Uwa Ogbodo joining the club.
I did not mind. I do not fear competition, but when new players
started coming I wanted to know if I still was part of the Sliema
plans. I had asked the coaching staff whether hard work and training
with the side, would still give me a chance to make the team. To
my surprise I was not given a positive answer so I decided it was
time to leave," the Malta international player said.
"I also remember Mr Pippo Psaila telling me and another four
players that if anyone wanted to find another club, he was free
to do so.
"This confirmed my initial decision to leave Sliema. Former
Floriana President Mr Anthony Grech Sant contacted me, asking me
to join Floriana, to which I had no objection.
"Unfortunately I was badly injured in my crusciate. Fortunately
Floriana helped me a lot and after a long while I recovered,"
he said.
The then Malta coach Kosanovic, called in George Mallia to form
part of the National team, at the tender age of 18. "I was
very surprised at this, because I was never called to form part
of the Under 21 side, and I suddenly found myself in the National
squad. After Kosanovic's call, Mr Robert Gatt, the then Malta Under
21 coach, included me in his side."
George has played 15 games with the National team so far, and is
looking forward to increasing his number of national matches.
When asked about the difference between Sliema and Floriana, George
said, " There's no big difference, both are big sides but with
Floriana I'm more at ease. The players are all young, so like me
they are all practically single and in terms of pressure it is not
that hectic.
"Because we are a young side no one expects much from us whilst
with Sliema it was another story," he said.
Being so happy with Floriana one would think George would be eager
to sign another contract with the club, as his present agreement
expires at the end of next season.
"Yes, I will sign a new contract immediately – but if
you asked me the same question this time last year, my answer would
have been completely different.
" We never used to get paid last season, the salary due accumulated
for eight months, but we are so eager, that we still managed to
qualify for Europe. At present we are getting paid regularly and
we are also being paid the salary due of last season," he said.
When asked about winning the league championship, Mallia said the
title is still a wide issue, but believes Valletta are the favourites
of retaining the title they lost last year.
"Their experience and commitment is out of this world and the
way they play week in week out surely makes them the team to beat.
We at Floriana always put that extra effort against Valletta. Although
I always make it a point to give 100 per cent against anyone, the
supporters feel that beating Valletta is always the ultimate aim.
"It is true that there is a big rivalry with Sliema, but Valletta
are always the team Floriana supporters would love to beat at the
end of the day", George explained.
Regarding the other sides, the Floriana striker said Hibs are a
very good side. "There's not much difference between the top
teams and it is only on who performs well on the day that gets a
good result.
"An example was the match against Sliema Wanderers on Monday
week. We played a very cautious game. Tactics gave us an important
victory. We played our usual way by defending and then counter-attacking.
On the day we also had Gongo Rysa in great form and thanks to him
we won the game.
"Now we will play Hibernians , a victory against them will
lead us to play Valletta. If we beat the Citizens too, who knows
what will happen?," George said.
George Mallia, from Qormi, agrees with the League's present format.
He explained that it is good for the game when the the second phase
sees big teams playing each other.
According to George, the new format is ideal in various contexts,
for the standard of the game, the supporters, financially as well
as for the National side.
"When good sides meet each other frequently the level of the
game becomes better ant the National team can only benefit from
this. " I think that Ilic is doing a good job with the Malta
side.
"The 0-0 against the Czech Republic, the 2-1 defeat against
England were good results, although we are far off from the international
scene. However, we have improved especially under Ilic," Mallia
said.
When asked, George said that a coach can change things around if
he's clever.
The former Sliema striker said that Floriana's new coach Karim Bencherifa
has instilled confidence in the side. He said that at the beginning
of the season the Greens were passing through a bad patch and even
were in danger of slipping into the relegation pool league. But
with the arrival of Bencherifa, the team regained confidence.
George Mallia said; "It is never a bore training with Karim,
he makes training enjoyable. He also gives us the confidence we
need. He has earned the respect of all the players.
George Mallia works at Luqa as a Purchasing Officer with the company
Air Supplies. Between work and football, he has little time for
anything else. In his limited leisure time he enjoys going out with
friends to watch a movie.
His favourite foreign destination is Prague while on the international
scene he supports Liverpool. Like many other footballers he's a
fan of foreign players such as Totti, Riu Costa, Figo and Redondo.
Photos
by Pippa Zammit Cutajar
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