Sliema Wanderers officially announced the signing of Malta international midfielder Teddy Teuma on a two-year deal while revealing the agreement of a long-term partnership with Betsson, one of the largest companies in the iGaming industry.
Addressing a press conference at the Betsson Group Headquarters in Ta’ Xbiex, new Sliema Wanderers president Walter Arciola said this was a special occasion for the club.
“The first thing as a new committee, we started working obviously on a number of ideas that we had, but the first thing that we needed to do is to make some very good signings.”
“Today we are happy to announce that Teddy Theuma joined Sliema Wanderers on a two-year contract. I think it’s one of the major transfers that Sliema did till today. And we had another two major transfers as well, that is Alex Satariano and Henry Bonello.”
“I think we are clearly sending a message that the new era for Sliema that we promised to our members will hopefully start and we look forward to find ourselves in better positions than we were in the recent years. We will try to compete with a number of players that will help us reach our targets.”
Teddy Teuma said he was happy to be part of the new project of Sliema Wanderers.
“I’m happy to be part of the new project from Sliema. I will give my best to help the team, like the president said, to reach our goals. And honestly, I’m very happy to, even if a lot of people will think I’m crazy, but I’m very happy to be back in Malta and to be part of this project. We will see for the future, but to build something big in Malta.”
“For me it was an easy choice because I’m proud of what I did in my career and I moved a lot. And for me, if I want stability now and for the future, for my family, Malta was the best choice. Honestly, it was not the plan to come now but if I want to build something in Malta, I prefer to come now and to be fit and to do great things with Sliema and to show what I can do. “
“To come too late and maybe I will be more or less good on the pitch. In my opinion, it was the best moment to come to live in Malta and find stability for my family and even me. ”
Teuma admitted that Henry Bonello encouraged him to join Sliema Wanderers.
“Henry Bonello helped me a lot to come here, and like he did for my first time with Malta, he helped me a lot to integrate and to feel good with the national team, and we are now good friends. He takes care of me, so I can say thank you to him, and like I said before, I’m very happy to be here, and it was not like the last choice or something like that, I had a lot of opportunities, but like I said, for me it was the best solution for me and my family to beat something big in Malta and to have more stability as well, and now I can’t wait to start the league and to, like we said, to reach our goals.”
Teuma started his career at Hyeres in the French fourth division – the National 2 – and later played for US Boulogne in the National 1 and Red Star FC with whom he also won promotion from the National 1 to the Ligue 2. He left Red Star in January 2019 to join Union Saint-Gilloise in the Belgian Challenger Pro League on a two and a half year contract. At Union Saint-Gilloise, he led the team to promotion to the Belgian Pro League at the end of season 2020/21 as team captain. Union Saint-Gilloise had an excellent campaign in 2021/22, finishing second and the following season, they reached the quarter-finals of the UEFA Europa League. He left the club to join Stade de Reims in Ligue 1 in summer 2023 but last January, returned to Belgium to join Standard Liege.
Sliema Wanderers president Walter Arciola went on to announce the signing of what is planned to be a long-term sponsorship agreement with Betsson which will also see the Sliema shirts carrying the Betsson logo.
“Today we are also here to celebrate a new partnership agreement that marks the beginning of a strong and meaningful collaboration. As everyone present knows, we took over the administration of this club just one month ago. Since then, my colleagues and I worked tirelessly to bring positive changes that the club will benefit in the years ahead. “
“Our focus has not only been of building a strong squad, but also putting in place improvements that will help ensure the club is running more effectively and sustainably in the future. The signing of this MOU is an important vote of confidence in a long-term vision we have established for the Sliema Wanderers new committee. Our objective is not simply to achieve success on the pitch, but we want to build an institution that is financially sustainable, supported by high-quality facilities, and positioned to compete successfully on the long term.”
“Betsson Group has understood and embraced this vision from day one. We are delighted to take this important first step towards a long-term partnership and look forward to working together to support the future development of Sliema Wanderers.”
Betsson Chief Commercial Officer Ronni Hartvig congratulated Sliema for the signing of Teddy Teuma.
“It’s impressive and I think everyone who loves football will look forward to see not only Teddy on the ground every weekend, but together with your recent signings, Satariano and Bonello, etc. I’m really excited on behalf of Betsson what we are, let’s say, doing here today.
Referring to the sponsorship agreement, Hartvig said “Betsson has been part of the community in Malta for more than 20 years. We have always been wanting to support sport and charity events and we have done that throughout the years, but this is a really exciting moment where we can deepen our roots into the community of Malta in general.”
“We have around 1,600 employees in Malta alone and with this partnership we believe that it can both be beneficial for our staff, but also the other way around. Internationally we are doing many sponsorships with big clubs abroad and we believe with our network and our relationship with those clubs we can bring Sliema closer to the European and international scene in many, many different ways that we will see in the coming years. Throughout this period, we have discussed a lot why Sliema and what is the ambition, what is the objective, and both Kristian (Saliba – Betsson Operations CFO) and Jesper (Svensson), our CEO, who unfortunately could not be here today, really, really believe in the vision. “
“It’s a long-term strategy, it’s a long-term ambition, your signings don’t look like it, it looks like you want to win this coming season, which is great, we love that, we want to win and we want to be part of a winning partnership, a winning team, but for us it’s very important to invest and give back into the community and the vision with the facilities, the club infrastructure, it’s really, really exciting.”
“You can see the new jersey for the new season and I’m personally proud that it says Betsson on it. Obviously, for us, getting our brand name out there in the local scene is great, but it’s so much more than that, it is the long-term vision, be part of investing in the infrastructure and for the youth to have the facilities that it takes to really bring talent and nurture those to get it to the big scene and hopefully abroad as well, it’s exciting for us. “
“Thank you, Walter (Arciola), for the whole collaboration so far, very exciting to go to see where this will bring us and I think it’s important to just finish off saying that this is a long-term partnership, we’re in it for the long game and we really believe that we have an amazing opportunity here. We will now sign the important MOU, which obviously then will turn into a finalised agreement in a couple of weeks time,” concluded Hartvig.