By M.McGrath - November 17, 2009
Former NQ Fury Transit lounge player (He was in then he was out) Brendon Santalab has enjoyed a stellar spell in the Chinese Super League hitting the back of net 9 times in just 13 appearances. Santalab’s arrival & valuable run of goals after breaking into the Chengdu Blades FC team helped fire his new club who were struggling & facing the possibility of a relegation battle when he arrived to a respectable seventh placed league finish.

Santalab who made a hurried exit out of the Fury fold when struggling during the fledgling A-League clubs pre-season has enjoyed a healthy start to his 2 year deal with the Blades of Chengdu winning over fans with his late season goal scoring exploits & actually out scored his more celebrated Australian compatriot Joel Griffiths who scored 8 times in 20 appearances for eventual Super league Champions Beijing Guoan.

Suspended for the Blades final league match Santalab thanked the clubs fans for their support & expressed delight at an enjoyable entry into Chinese life & football...

''I would like to thank the fans for making my three months at the Blades a comfortable one, its a great feeling as a player to have the support from your own fans and I hope to continue my good run of form next season''.

Such was the player’s impressive form Central Coast Mariners boss Lawrie McKinna recently made a cheeky bid to sign the player but was quickly rebuffed by Santalab’s Chinese employers. McKinna elaborated…

''He's been scoring a lot of goals over there, and we asked about bringing him in. However, they're pretty happy with him, as you can imagine. He's in some terrific form, and we were interested but weren't surprised it didn't happen.''

Santalab had been rumored for some time to have been unhappy with life at NQ Fury during the fledgling clubs early tenure & pre-season. He was eventually sold to Chengdu for an undisclosed fee & replaced by on loan Brondby star David Williams in a player movement that ultimately worked out positively for everybody concerned. Santalab departed Fury without playing a competitive game.

at nqfuryfcjournal.com