Newly-promoted Zabbar St. Patrick continued to strengthen their squad with the signing of another four players, namely Serbian twenty five year old winger Stefan Ilic, Serbian/Bosnian twenty two year old central defender Djordje Jovicic, Brazilian twenty eight year old Marcelo Barros Santos and Portuguese twenty year old right back Martim Augusto Ferreira.
A product of FK Partizan Belgrade, Ilic also played for FK Teleoptik Zemun, FK Macva Sabac, FK Buducnost Dobanovci, Wisla Pulawy in Poland, FK Radnicki Sremska Mitrovica and FK Metalac Gornji Milanovac.
Jovicic was on the books of FK Vojvodina Novi Sad and Red Star Belgrade in Serbia, SC Braga in Portugal, AS Trencin in Slovakia and FK Podgorica in Montenegro.
Marcelo Santos started his career at Cruzeiro EC and went on to play for SC Corinthians, GE Anápolis and Ipatinga FC and Clube do Remo before moving to Portugal where he played for AD Fafe, Berço SC, Merelinense FC, Oriental Dragon FC and AD Sanjoanense.
On the other hand, Martim Ferreira was on the books of Núcleo do Sporting de Alcabideche, GD Estoril Praia, SL Benfica and Académico de Viseu.
Zabbar, who have appointed Portuguese coach João Pedro de Oliveira Janeiro as their new coach, had earlier signed goalkeepers Erick Felipe Vital Correia and Luca Camilleri, Strahinja Jovancic, Diogo João Regala de Figueiredo Tavares, Wallace Bonilha Felix, João Pedro de Sá Mendonça, Vinícius de Paiva, Zachary Grech, Jake Micallef and Sean Gatt.
Meanwhile Leo Agius, Dion Fava and Brian Gambarte signed new deals with the club while Liam Lagana, Matthew Ellul, Owen Magro, Owen Sciberras, James Sclcluna, Samuel Buhagiar, Rowad Benhamed, Brendan Scerri, Rodolfo Soares, Andreas Vella, Hubert Vella, Issah Aliyu and Ezequiel Ruiz moved elsewhere.
So 13 players have moved on from last season. Correct me if I am wrong, these players helped the Saints to promotion to the Premier League, but now their services are not required by the club for some reason or another. It does not make sense to me. Usually a club would reinforce the squad with a few additional players to improve their team. I suppose the transfer window in Malta is like going to the cattle market and bid for the best.