Obadin is back

Coach Sam Schweingruber welcomes Odion Obadin to the Crown ranks

A familiar face is back in the Phnom Penh Crown squad, with central defender Odion Obadin re-joining the club earlier today. Obadin spent the last two seasons with Crown before coming to the end of his contract and spending some time in Myanmar looking for a club, before returning to Phnom Penh and being welcomed back into the Crown fold by new head coach Sam Schweingruber. The 24-year old was a popular member of Crown's C-League title winning team in 2011, which also lost out narrowly in the AFC President's Cup final. Touted as the best defender in the league, Obadin and the rest of the Crown team endured a less-than-successful campaign last time around and he'll be looking to put that behind him under the new coach. Born in Lagos, the Nigerian stopper played his football with Pero, Heart of Lions, and Shooting Stars in his home country before joining Gombak United in the Singapore League. He made the move to Cambodia originally joining Crown in November 2010, and will be the club's second foreign player, with Nelson Oladiji, for the coming season. Also joining him in the PPCFC squad will be another defender, Leng Narin. A Phnom Penh native, Narin (27)  joined the Ministry of National Defense team as a teenager and spent his whole time with the Army before leaving them in 2011. During his spell, Army won the Hun Sen Cup in 2010 and were CPL runners-up in 2007 and 2008. Narin also played for Santhormuk High School, winning the schools provincial cup competition. More recently he has been working on Koh Rong island before joining Crown after a successful trial.

Defender Leng Narin, formerly with the Army team

Obadin shocker

The PPCFC squad pictured before their departure Saturday morning - click to enlarge

The look of bewilderment on the face of Odion Obadin told a sad story as he said his goodbyes to his teammates, after being refused entry into China and sent back to Cambodia on the next available flight. Phnom Penh Crown were on their way to Tajikistan to represent Cambodia in the final stages of the AFC President's Cup and were flying to the Tajik capital of Dushanbe via the Chinese airports of Guangzhou and Urumqi. The team had met at 6am Saturday morning, ready for their flight out two hours later. The television cameras were present to see the team off with Tieng Tiny and Khim Borey giving interviews before the team boarded their flight with Southern China airlines. The surly and hostile airport police weren't exactly the welcoming committee they had expected at Guangzhou airport and then Odion was pulled out of the transit queue and ordered to sit and wait whilst officials investigated his paperwork. The rest of the squad waited to be reunited with their popular defender, only for Obadin to arrive an hour later, under guard of two airport officials who said he wasn't allowed into China without a visa, even though the player was merely transiting through and not actually staying in the country. There was no room for manoeuvre as Obadin collected his bag, said his goodbyes and was ushered away. At this time, the club is looking into getting Obadin to Tajikistan via another route. The deflated squad caught their next flight, a five and half hour trip to Urumqi, in northwestern China and then a 2.5 hour flight to Dushanbe, their final destination, arriving at 2am Cambodian time. A police escort took the team to its headquarters at the 5* Dushanbe Serena Hotel for some well-earned shut-eye, but the disappearance of Obadin has left a sour taste in the mouth ahead of the club's most important games of the season.

Captain Tieng Tiny meets the television media before departure

It's Khim Borey's turn to face the television cameras

Care to dance?

Would you care to dance? Odion Obadin (12) and Naga's Phorn Ratana.

I just had to post this photo, taken by Antony Sutton of the Jakarta Casual blog when he was on a recent visit to Phnom Penh. It was an incident during the Phnom Penh Crown v Naga Corp match played at the Old Stadium. I won't bother you with the result as that's water under the bridge, suffice to say that the action depicted was in the 1st half and involves Crown's defender Odion Obadin and Naga goalkeeper Phorn Ratana, as they challenge for a free-kick. I don't believe they've met before, but this is what you'd call a very close encounter. As always happens in Cambodia football, the goalkeeper reacted as though he'd been attacked by a gang of thugs and stayed down for about five minutes. But then if Odion Obadin had run into me at full steam, I'd take a few moments to collect my thoughts, and my dignity. You can see more of Obadin when Phnom Penh Crown meet Prek Pra Keila at the Olympic Stadium tomorrow at 4pm. League leaders Crown look set to have a full strength squad to choose from, no injuries and no suspensions, as long as Kouch Sokumpheak is fully recovered, and coach David Booth has to perm his best starting eleven from a squad all bursting to get on the pitch. Prek Pra will, as usual, be supported from the stands by their vociferous supporters, which always makes their games a bit more lively. The Cham community of Prek Pra on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, have certainly rallied around their football team and come out in force every time Prek Pra are scheduled to play.