Alex Muscat will remember his 300th appearance in the BOV Premier League for all the right reasons after helping Sliema Wanderers snap a run of three consecutive defeats with a hard-fought 2-1 victory over the erstwhile unbeaten Birkirkara on Sunday.
Known as one of the true gentlemen of Maltese football, a player who, in the words of Sliema Wanderers president Keith Perry “represents honesty, integrity and most of all loyalty”, Muscat celebrated his career milestone with a towering performance in the heart of defence.
“The most important thing was to win after losing our opening three games,” Muscat told Times of Malta.
“If we hadn’t won against Birkirkara, we would have been extremely disappointed because I don’t recall a season where Sliema had suffered four defeats in a row.
“Obviously, claiming our first win of the season in my 300th game in the Premier League made it sweeter.
“To be honest, when I began my career I never imagined that I would reach this milestone.
“At the time, I was only thinking of playing for Sliema. Needless to say that I’m pleased to have amassed 300 league matches and proud to be second only to Noel Turner on the list of players with most league appearances for Sliema Wanderers.”
According to Malta FA statistician Lennard Kelder, Turner leads the chart with 348 league appearances in the famous blue shirt with Muscat second on 278.
“My first target was to wear the Sliema shirt because I’m a supporter of this club,” Muscat added.
“I’ve been part of Sliema Wanderers since I was seven.”
Muscat, 31, is a one-club man as, apart from loan spells with Lija Athletic and Balzan, he has always represented the Wanderers.
“I went out on loan when I was 17 years old,” he reminisced.
I had several offers to join other clubs but at the end of the day I always chose to stay with Sliema because I love this club
“At the time, Sliema Wanderers were challenging for all the domestic honours and it was difficult for an upcoming player to break into the first team.
“The club and I agreed that, at that stage of my career, it was better for me to go out on loan but my principal objective was to gain experience in order to establish myself with Sliema Wanderers.
“I had several offers to join other clubs but at the end of the day I always chose to stay with Sliema Wanderers because I love this club.”
Coming from a demoralising defeat to newly-promoted Gżira, Sliema were given little chance of breaking their duck against the high-flying Stripes but they responded to adversity with a tenacious performance, much to the delight of their captain.
“In the first two league matches (lost 2-1 against Valletta and 1-0 against Hibs), we didn’t deserve to finish empty-handed,” Muscat, who scored from the penalty spot to put Sliema ahead in Sunday’s clash, said.
“The game against Gżira United was very disappointing because we didn’t perform.
“We knew that we faced a very difficult match against Birkirkara, moreso as our situation was further complicated by injuries to key players.
“Our two regular centre-halves, Stefano Bianciardi and Roger, are both injured and that was a big problem for us. The coach asked me to move into centre-half alongside Marko Potezica but we had never played together.
“However, our collective strength came to the fore as we produced a very positive performance. We deserved to win.
“Now we have to be careful and not get carried away by this result because we have a tendency of dropping points against unfancied teams. But, after the Gżira upset, we have responded in the right manner.”
National team
Since nailing down a regular place with Sliema, Muscat has been called up regularly to the national squad, earning 31 caps.
He would surely have clocked up more international appearances but two cruciate operations inevitably disrupted his progress.
The Sliema talisman was left out of the Malta squad for the opening 2018 World Cup qualifier against Scotland (1-5) and the preceding friendly against Estonia (1-1) but his improving performances are unlikely to have gone unnoticed by national coach Pietro Ghedin as he ponders his options ahead of the much-awaited qualifier against England at Wembley on October 8 and against Lithuania three days later.
“I’ve been out of the national squad in the last few months,” Muscat said.
“Not being involved with the national team is disappointing, I have to admit, but at the same time it gives me extra motivation, kind of boost, to raise my efforts and do better because, I say to myself, there must be a reason why the coach is not calling me.
“I’ve been playing for the national team for 13 years and I always look forward to being part of the squad.
“Every international game is special but to play against England would be great.
“From my side, I just have to keep doing my job as best as I can for the good of my club and also to enhance my chances of earning a recall to the national squad.”