Mosta FC confirmed their status as one of the most active sides during the January transfer win-dow after beating Premier League rivals Qormi to the signature of Birkirkara striker Terrence Vella besides being on the verge of signing a free-agent Bulgarian player on the final day of nego-tiations, yesterday.
Last month, Mosta strength-ened their squad considerably when they acquired the services of strikers Obinna Obiefule (Nigeria) and Zakaria Kibona (Tanzania) along with midfielders Dyson Falzon, Predrag Mirceta (Serbia) and Florent Raimy (France).
Yesterday, they further en-hanced coach Steve D’Amato’s options when they reached an agreement with Birkirkara to take Vella on loan until the end of the season.
Qormi were also in the hunt for the Malta U-21 international but finally Vella opted to join the Blues.
Mosta yesterday also decided to offload Montenegro midfielder Nikola Bogdanovic. He will play for Sliema Wanderers for the rest of the season.
The Wanderers were also hoping to lure Alfred Effiong to their fold but the Valletta striker will stay put as negotiations by the Citizens to sign an overseas for-ward, believed to be of Serie A calibre, failed to materialise.
Bogdanovic’s place at Mosta is likely to be filled by an Under-21 Bulgarian defender who is due to join D’Amato’s squad today.
If the deal goes through, Mosta will have seven overseas players in their squad.
Vella was not the only Birkirkara player to seek pastures new yesterday as winger Leighton Grech returned to his former club Vittoriosa Stars on loan till next June.
Grech, who left the Stars last summer, became the fourth Maltese player to part from the Stripes in a matter of days following the departures of Trevor Cilia and Andrew Decesare. Both joined Sliema as part of the move that brought Jean Pierre Mifsud Tri-ganza back to the valley club.
Chetcuti break
Qormi were forced to strengthen their backline in this transfer window following the news that veteran Jeffrey Chetcuti had decided to take a break from the game.
In fact, the Yellow-Blacks added two new defenders in January as Vincent Kouadio, of the Ivory Coast, joined Englishman Kris Thackray in Stephen Azzopardi’s squad.
Chetcuti had reached an agree-ment with the club to terminate his contract.
“After several years where football was top priority in my life, now it’s the time to put the family back on the top of my list,” the 37-year-old, winner of every honour the local game has to offer following suc-cessful stints at Valletta and Sliema earlier in his career, said.
“I’m taking a break from the game at least until next June. However, that doesn’t mean that I’m quitting football completely. If an opportunity that suits my desires arises at the close season I will, perhaps, consider a return.”
Elsewhere, Mqabba completed a last-minute loan move for Balzan midfielder David Fenech.
Earlier this week, Balzan had signed striker Glenn Bonello from St George’s.
Premier League strugglers Mar-saxlokk will have Serb midfielder Ivan Kurtesic, formerly of Vit-toriosa Stars, on their books but yesterday the southerners off-loaded defender Andrew Spiteri to Pieta Hotspurs.
Division One leaders Pieta also added experienced midfielder Jonathan Holland to their squad on the last day of the transfers window.