Winning the League for Birkirkara is a prime target

George Mallia is one of the best strikers on the island. He won the Championship with his former club Sliema Wanderers at the tender age of seventeen. He then moved to Floriana for a couple of seasons. He's just joined Birkirkara. RAY ABDILLA asks about his prime target: winning the league with the Stripes.

Moving to a bigger club will improve his standard. But his priority is to win the league with his new club Birkirkara. Like any other Maltese player George Mallia wants to play abroad, but feels it is very difficult for a Maltese player to make the move abroad.

First he wants to concentrate on winning the league with his new club. "It's not going to be easy, because there are three other sides who could win the title, Valletta, Sliema and Hibernians. We are a young side with some experienced players. We will also improve when Antoine Zahra makes the squad after his injury," he said.

He's had problems with his former club Sliema Wanderers. After initial joy with rivals firm Floriana, things went downhill after the change of many faces at the committee including the President. With many players leaving the club he could not hang on. He wants to play in a team that wins trophies.

George Mallia, born the 10 October 1978, became interested in football at the age of eight. His father used to take him to the Skola Sport at Marsa, 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 recognised 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.

At the time no player could play for a side outside his district. George had to wait two years before playing for Sliema.

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 those days. I still consider them to be the best of my life." George said.

At age 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.

"But there was talk of re-shuffle at Sliema. Ivan Woods, Mark Galea and Uwa Ogbodo were on the brink of joining the Blues. I did not mind. I never feared any competition, but when new players started coming I wanted to know whether I was still part of Sliema's 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 said.

"I also remember 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 Anthony Grech Sant contacted me, asking me to join Floriana, to which I had no objection.

"Unfortunately the start was not that electrifying. I was badly injured early on. Floriana helped me a lot until I recovered,"George recalled.

Kosanovic, called him in 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, Robert Gatt, then the Malta Under-21 coach, included me in his side."

George loves playing with the national team. He regrets that he wasn't able to make it to the Macedonia friendly. "I look forward to increasing the number of international matches but I couldn't take any more leave. I work at Air Supply and this time of the year it is always hectic, so I just couldn't go."

When asked about the difference between Birkirkara and Floriana, George said, " There’s no big difference, both are big clubs. Both want to win every game. With Floriana it's more relaxing. Birkirkara's supporting hordes are too demanding.

Although he left Floriana, Mallia still misses some of the good friends he had there. Being so happy with Floriana one would have thought that George would have been eager to sign another contract with the club. In fact in an interview with MaltaToday approximately two years ago Mallia had said. "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 from last season," he said.

But then the same old problems cropped up and Mallia decided that his future lay elsewhere.

When asked about winning the league championship, Mallia said the title is still a wide issue. Although Valletta are not being mentioned much this season, he still feels Valletta are one of the favourites for landing the title.

"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.

"There’s not much difference between the top teams. It just hinges on who performs well on the day.

"Although one has to take the friendly matches with a pinch of salt, the big teams are already showing what they are made of.

George Mallia, who hails from Qormi, still agrees with the League’s present format. He explained that it is good for the game when 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 and the National team can only benefit from this. "

George had words of praise for Stephen Azzopardi: "He's one of the best mentors I've ever played for: a good tactician and he knows the game from A to Z. "

The former Sliema and Floriana striker also praised former Floriana coach Karim Bencherifa. He said that he had 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; "With Stephen it's just like it was 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 movies.

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.

In his first competitive match for Birkirkara, the side lost heavily to Ukrainians, FC Metalurh Zaporizhya in the UEFA Cup: a hefty 3-0 defeat. Mallia said: "We played against a good side even though at times we looked better. We were also unlucky and 3-0 was a cruel score. We' hope to put things in perspective at Ta'Qali next Thursday. It won't be easy pulling back three goals, but in football anything can happen."