Baldwin & Adriano sign on

Baldwin Ngwa signs on with PPCFC

Phnom Penh Crown coach Sam Schweingruber has signed Cameroon striker Baldwin Ngwa Afa'nwi even though he cannot play for Crown in the second half of the season. Crown are allowed to sign just one foreign player to play in Round 2 and that player is Adriano Pellegrino. So the signing of Baldwin is one for the future and he will feature for Asia Euro in the MCL for the remainder of the current season. Just turned 24 years old, Baldwin was on trial in Vietnam at the start of the year with Thanh Quang Ninh but suffered a hamstring injury, his visa expired and he came to Cambodia. That's when he came to try out with Crown to regain his fitness and scored a hat-trick in his first outing, a friendly game against Albirex. The man with a nose for goal began life with clubs in his home country, with spells at Bamboutos Mbouda, Caiman and Tiko United before heading to the Kenyan premier division with Gor Mahia and then a couple of stints in the top Tunisia League with JS Kairouan, sandwiched between returning to Kenya with Western Stima and Rangers. He also had a stint in the Oman professional league with Majees Sports Club, so despite his relative young age, he has quite a bit of experience on his playing CV. Recovering his match sharpness will be his first priority with AEU and then we will look ahead to next season.

Adriano Pellegrino, in Central Coast Mariners colours

Twenty-nine year old Adriano Pellegrino made a memorable impact on his debut against AEU last weekend with two goals and as many assists, and that was just in the first-half! Born in Adelaide, Australia, he played his early football with Adelaide City, Adelaide United, Western Strikers and North Eastern Metrostars, as well as a stint in Greece with Panachaiki. In 2008 he joined A-League team Perth Glory for 3 years, before moving to Central Coast Mariners, also in the Australian League, where he registered nearly 100 A-League appearances in total and played in last season's AFC Champions League. He played a game for AEU earlier this term on his way to Kedah in the Malaysian League, but that deal fell through and their bad luck luck is our good fortune. The former Australian U-20 international joined Crown a few hours before his two-goal debut against AEU. Now 29 years old, coach Sam Schweingruber had this to say about the midfield playmaker: "Adriano was instrumental in all the first half goals against AEU, scoring two and setting up two more with his free-kicks. He's strong on the ball, clever, reads the game quickly, definitely a player on a higher level. We will see more of him dictating and controlling games, changing the rhythm, slowing and speeding the game up. He's not yet 100% fit, hasn't played 90 minutes for a while, so there's a lot more to come. I'm excited to see how over the next few weeks he can perform when he gets fitter." A longer interview with Schweingruber on his newest signing will be posted later.