PETALING JAYA: The departure of Fernando Forestieri has seen Johor Darul Ta’zim dipping their hands into the second transfer window, by signing another South American striker.
They have hired Jorge Obregon (pic) of Colombia to combine forces with Brazilians Heberty Fernandes and Bergson Da Silva and now they will have a hot-shot Colombian.
The 27-year-old made his first overseas move in 2019 by joining Peruvian side Deportivo Municipal and then, played for NK Varazdin and then to Rijeka in 2021 in Croatia.
His signing is surely to bolster the club’s outing in the AFC Champions League Elite, which starts on Sept 16.
The competition’s format is unique as it begins with a league stage of 24 teams, which are split into two leagues (east and west), with each team playing against eight opponents from their league (four at home and four away).
JDT will play their home matches against Ulsan HD, Pohang Steelers (South Korea), Buriram United (Thailand) and Shanghai Shenhua (China), as for their away fixtures, they will take on Shandong Taishan, Shanghai Port (China), Central Coast Mariners (Australia) and Gwangju (South Korea).
And there will be no foreign player limits in the competition, hence the reason why JDT are signing many foreign players.
The other foreign players in JDT’s squad are Indonesian centreback Jordi Amat, French winger Enzo Lombardo, Brazilian wingback Murilo Henrique, South Korean centreback Park Jun-heong, Australian centreback Shane Lowry, Spanish midfielders Iker Undabarrena, Juan Muniz, Filipino-Spanish wingback Oscar Arribas and Azerbaijani midfielder Eddy Israfilov.
Meanwhile, Portuguese midfielder Francisco Geraldes will leave the Southern Tigers to play for Spanish Segunda Division CF Eldense on loan.
Geraldes last stint with JDT was at the FA Cup where they went on to win the title.
