Herbert Messina Ferrante, former Sliema Wanderers FC president dies at 80

Herbert Messina Ferrante, former PN councillor and Sliema Wanderers FC president, has passed away on Monday morning, aged 80.

Ferrante served as vice-president of Sliema Wanderers FC, the Sliema football club, for six years before being elected president in 1987.

The blue-donning club, as well as the Maltese football fraternity, mourn the loss of a successful club president, leading Sliema to a memorable league title in the 1988-89 season.

In 1990, Ferrante also won the FA Trophy in a hard-fought game against Birkirkara, ending in a 1-0 win for the blues.

Messina Ferrante also formed part of the Malta FA Administration as vice-president.

Also a founding member of the Self-Employed Union in 1970 and eventually becoming its president in 1979, Ferrante was a local councillor for the Nationalist Party in Attard and was president of the Nationalist Party's association of pensioners.

Ferrante was a dentist by profession, educated at St Aloysius College and graduated as a dentist in 1960.

In 2012, former president George Abela, bestowed Ferrante with the National Order of Merit Award.

He would have turned 81 in 4 January.