Showing off their ammunition prior to the league opener against fierce rivals Neptunes tomorrow evening, San Ġiljan ASC secretary Leonard Bonello said the club is “ready to fight for honours”.

The club is looking to build on their positive Winter League campaign where they only lost out to Neptunes on direct encounter after finishing level at the top on 16 points.

Tweaking the squad for Summer League was next on the agenda.

San Ġiljan officials thanked departing head coach Emil Nikolic who had to leave for personal reasons. His successor, Croatian Marko Orlovic, is confident that the team is balanced and can compete for the league and KO trophies.

San Ġiljan were sad to let go of some of their former players, such as Dean Camilleri, Karl Galea and Andrea Bianchi, as they seek to break the mould in local waterpolo and challenge the traditional giants, Neptunes and Sliema.

Youngster Peter Borg has been signed from Exiles and Bonello also credited the club’s philosophy for dipping into the youth teams in search of talent.

To aid the young team, San Ġiljan yesterday presented their new foreign imports, namely Spaniard Guillermo Molina Rios, who is on the books of Brescia, who praised the work of the club’s ambitious committee.

He is joined by the left-handed Serbian Boris Vapenski, a European pedigree. Club captain Matthew Zammit is optimistic that “these two (foreigners) are Europe’s finest players and their experience will help the team”.

A player who needs no introduction to local waterpolo, Aurelien Cousin, has finally secured a Maltese passport and will now feature more in his team.

The French-born player, who also harbours hopes of playing for the Maltese national team, has been influential at the club, coaching the younger generation in an academy which underlines San Ġiljan’s commitment towards youth development.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.