Serbian football giants FK Crvena Zvezda, also known as Red Star Belgrade, have signed a pre-agreement to open a football academy in Malaysia.
The Serbian SuperLiga champions made the announcement on Thursday with club president Svetozar Mijailovic and Amin Dalek, second secretary at the Embassy of Malaysia in Belgrade, in attendance.
"The goal of the cooperation is for talented children from Malaysia to develop their football skills at the academy and make the club recognisable even outside Europe," read an official statement from the club.
Amin said he was inspired to form the partnership to help young players in the Southeast Asian region to get access to the club's development programme.
"I am trying to bring Zvezda's football academy to Malaysia. It is expensive to come to Serbia from Malaysia and Southeast Asia, and there are also obstacles to obtain a visa.
"So I would bring the academy to Malaysia so that kids in the region could train there," said Amin.
The football academy would be the club's second connection to Malaysia, with Malaysian youngster Omar Raiyan Kama Azlan currently playing for their U-17 squad.
