Agu Casmir

Agu Casmir (born 23 March 1984 in Lagos, Nigeria) is a retired professional football player from Singapore.

Agu Casmir
Personal information
Full name Agu Casmir
Date of birth (1984-03-23) 23 March 1984
Place of birth Lagos, Nigeria
Height 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Position(s) Striker
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2002–2003 Woodlands Wellington 53 (41)
2004–2005 Young Lions 34 (31)
2006 Woodlands Wellington 30 (14)
2007 Gombak United 26 (11)
2008 PDRM 3 (1)
2008–2010 Gombak United 57 (23)
2010–2011 Persija Jakarta 21 (9)
2012 LionsXII 14 (5)
2013 Persebaya Bhayangkara 6 (2)
2014 Warriors FC
National team
2003–2007 Singapore U23
2004–2012 Singapore 42 (15)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 24 May 2009
‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 06:01, 5 January 2014 (UTC)

Agu was offered Singapore citizenship via the Foreign Sports Talent Scheme in 2004.[1]

Club career

He has previously played for S.League clubs Young Lions and Woodlands Wellington FC in Singapore's S.League,

Agu burst onto the football scene with Woodlands Wellington FC in 2002, scoring a remarkable 27 goals as an 18-year-old. He followed that up with another 15 goals the next year. In 2004 and 2005, playing for Young Lions, he scored a total of 31 goals. He returned to Woodlands Wellington FC last year and scored 17 times, before joining Gombak United FC at the start of the current 2007 S.League season.

On 19 September 2007, Agu Casmir's 86th-minute goal for the Gombak United FC, which cancelled out Home United FC Kone Hamed's 18th-minute opener, was his 100th in the S.League.

At the end of the 2007, Gombak United decided not to renew his contract and thus. Nevertheless, when the FIFA World Cup 2010 qualifier game against Lebanon loomed, he trained with one of his former club, Young Lions to keep his fitness at peak condition to be eligible for a call up to the national team.

He didn't play for the large part of 2008 due to being clubless, but in August 2008, Malaysian club PDRM FA signed him together with Noh Alam Shah. But controversially, he was released after just 3 games, without any goals to his name. Gombak United again came to re-sign him in 2009.

Agu spent the 2011 season playing for Persija Jakarta in the Indonesian Super League. On 5 December 2011, it was announced that he would be joining the Singapore LIONSXII team that would be returning to the Malaysian Super League for the 2012 season.

Not retained in the LionsXII squad for 2013, Agu was left without a club for a year until he signed with Indonesian club Persebaya Bhayangkara at the end of 2013.[2][3] In June 2014, Agu signed with S.League Warriors FC taking jersey number 22.

International career

He was a member of the Singapore national team, which won the Tiger Cup regional football championship in 2005.

He was part of the 2005 and 2007 SEA Games squad, the latter being a bronze-medal winning team.

His impressive displays in the tail-end of 2008 earned him a national call up for the 2008 Suzuki Cup.

He scored a last minute goal for Singapore against Myanmar to allow Singapore to earn three points at the 2010 Suzuki Cup, but they were still unable to progress to the next round.

Controversy

Controversy arose over Agu Casmir when local press in Singapore reported his absence in January 2006. It was reported that Casmir signed a contract with Indonesian football club Persija Jakarta and that he took a signing-on fee of US$20,000. However, he did not report for training, claiming to be attending football trials with a Russian club and the club subsequently sought repayment of the fee from his agent, ex-footballer Jules Onana.

It was consequently reported on 19 February 2006 in The Straits Times that Agu Casmir had purportedly been in Canada and had no intention of further pursuing a career in football. The report quoted Agu Casmir's ex-manager, R. Vengadasalam, as saying that Casmir was disillusioned with football and had no intention of returning to Singapore. He had taken the contract to prove that he could still command a large annual fee (reported at US$80,000).

After a few weeks, reports emerged that he wanted to return to playing football in Singapore. Several football clubs including Gombak United FC had expressed interest in inviting him to play for their team, before he re-signed for former club Woodlands Wellington FC on a one-year contract, under a deal in which the club would re-pay Persija Jakarta his signing-on fee.

The Football Association of Singapore suspended him from the national squad for a year and fined him S$20,000, for his actions involving Persija Jakarta.[4]

National team career statistics

Goals for senior national team

#DateVenueOpponentScoreResultCompetition
1.13 December 2004Hanoi, Vietnam Laos3–16–2 (Won)2004 Tiger Cup
2.13 December 2004Hanoi, Vietnam Laos6–26–2 (Won)2004 Tiger Cup
3.29 December 2004Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Myanmar2–14–3 (Won)2004 Tiger Cup
4.2 January 2005Singapore Myanmar4–24–2 (Won)2004 Tiger Cup
5.8 January 2005Jakarta, Indonesia Indonesia3–03–1 (Won)2004 Tiger Cup
6.16 January 2005Singapore Indonesia2–02–1 (Won)2004 Tiger Cup
7.4 October 2007Manama, Bahrain Bahrain1–01–0 (Lost)Friendly
8.5 December 2008Jakarta, Indonesia Cambodia1–05–0 (Won)2008 AFF Suzuki Cup
9.5 December 2008Jakarta, Indonesia Cambodia4–05–0 (Won)2008 AFF Suzuki Cup
10.7 December 2008Jakarta, Indonesia Myanmar2–03–1 (Won)2008 AFF Suzuki Cup
11.7 December 2008Jakarta, Indonesia Myanmar3–13–1 (Won)2008 AFF Suzuki Cup
12.26 November 2010Jurong, Singapore Laos2–04–0 (Won)Friendly
13.26 November 2010Jurong, Singapore Laos4–04–0 (Won)Friendly
14.5 December 2010Hanoi, Vietnam Myanmar2–12–1 (Won)2010 AFF Suzuki Cup

Honours

Club

Gombak United

International

Singapore

Individual

  • 100 S.League Goals: 2007

References

  1. "The imports Singapore called upon under the Foreign Talent Scheme". FourFourTwo. Archived from the original on 17 September 2018. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  2. "The Nigeria-born Singaporean forward has returned to Indonesia with the East Java club who have been in the search for a new striker". Archived from the original on 28 March 2016. Retrieved 13 February 2014.
  3. "Agu Casmir's Indonesia stint comes to early end". Archived from the original on 28 March 2016. Retrieved 13 February 2014.
  4. "The Power of Words". Archived from the original on 17 August 2016. Retrieved 9 September 2007.
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