Crown look overseas

Elroy van der Hooft arrives at PPCFC

Phnom Penh Crown coach Sam Schweingruber has kept himself busy in the week long break for Khmer New Year. Assessing that his young Crown squad needed some strengthening as the second round of the Metfone C-League is just about to start, the Swiss coach decided to look overseas for a few new faces. Thwarted by clubs in the C-League not releasing players who were seeking to join Crown, he picked up a Dutch striker, the first to grace the C-League, as well as two South Korean imports looking to make a splash in Cambodia. Elroy van der Hooft earned his spurs at the famous Ajax Academy in Holland for six years before spells at other Dutch clubs, in Greece and more recently hooking up with a club in Indonesia. He has to wait to make his start over there so he's joined Crown until the end of the C-League season, to give the club an additional attacking option. The two Koreans, Lee Ha-Neul and Choi Jae-Cheol went through the Korean university system though Choi had two serious knee operations and dropped out for a stint in the Army. He's looking to get his fitness and touch back having been in the Korean national squads from age 12 to 17. Lee has just had a spell in the Japanese League, so both have an interesting pedigree. And both are attack minded players. The Crown coach knows that scoring goals has been his team's weakness in their past few games and he's looking for the new arrivals to make an impact in that area.

A welcome to Elroy from assistant coach Bouy Dary

Listening to the coaching staff, new faces Elroy (left) and Lee Ha-Neul (middle)