Coach Frans Spiteri’s mission to bring glory to Naxxar Victorians goes on as he announced he was to extend his contract with the club for another season. This comes as pleasant news to both committee and squad after his work during the 2018/19 season.
Spiteri, who joined the club in February 2019 said there was a good improvement since he joined the club. “I hope that for next year, with some changes and more commitment, we can go all the way forward.” Spiteri said during his
announcement at the Night of the Victorians 2019 awards ceremony.
His main focus now will be primarily to do well in the MAFA second division and aim for promotion. Back in February, Spiteri had been a much needed upgrade to the coaching staff following a disappointing streak of losses in the MAFA First Division. While the San Gwann based coach took over the general proceedings, caretaker coach Kurt Aquilina took an assistant role in which the pair focused on different aspects of the game in preparation for our MAFA fixtures.
While Aquilina has eventually shifted back towards being part of the play itself as per last season’s initial plan, Spiteri will now take over the entire role going into the coming season.
Spiteri concluded his announcement by thanking president Karl Borg and Aquilina for their hard work as well as the rest of the players who will now be facing his training yet again in July for preseason. “Without you guys, this team would be nothing”, Spiteri concluded.
Club president Borg expressed satisfaction after managing to retain the experienced coach at the club. He stressed that it had been something he had worked on very hard and in a recent interview said that “we’ve fixed a problem which had troubled us since last summer. I want to thank Kurt Aquilina for stepping up and taking up the position during those hard times.”
The Night of the Victorians 2019 ceremony highlighted the traditional awards given to the Most Improved player, Fan Favourite, Top Scorer, Players’ Player and finally the Best Player. This year, it was captain Chris Cutajar who took the grand prize after a season which needed him to be the backbone of the team as the centre back led the way to keep the team together both on and off the pitch. The Players’ Player award was given to Keith Zammit who has been instrumental to the club in his debut season. Our top scorer Fabrizio Farrugia collected the most awards of the night after also being crowned the club’s Fan favourite for the season. Malcolm Fenech won the Most improved award this year after moving from newcomer to a player which the team depended by the end of the season.