Knights bolster front with final signing

The Melbourne Knights are delighted to reveal their final signing ahead of the 2022 season, Lionel Masudi.

The 24-year-old striker arrives fresh from Geelong Soccer Club in the NPL Victoria 3 competition, where he appeared eight times in the senior side, finding the back of the net on a number of occasions. His arrival further strengthens the sides forward power and increases the squads depth, a crucial requirement for the long NPL season upon us.

Aside from senior team call ups, Masudi also occasionally featured in the sides the under-21’s as well.

A familiar face to Victorian football, the attacker has also been involved with Murray United in 2017, Box Hill United in 2018 and Altona City in 2019, before moving abroad to hone his skills in Europe.

Masudi moved to England ahead of the 2019/20 season to Surrey-based side Badshot Lea, before making the swift return to Australia due to the pandemic.

As he steps up to the main stage of Victorian football, Masudi describes the competition as “very strong”, with a lot of “good teams”. He finds the nature of the competition to be strong, saying, “it’s going to be a battle to get results from any team”.

When the Knights came knocking, Masudi felt as if he “couldn’t say no”, as the Knights are, “a huge club not only in Victoria, but Australia”.

From a personal point of view, he mentioned, “the chances for me to step up the NPL leagues and challenge myself, and to do it with a respected club in Australia is an honour”.

Masudi has his eyes on the prize, stating he would like to “challenge for the league title” and “win the Dockerty Cup”, an important Victorian trophy which the club has a long history with. Not shy to hedge his bets Masudi fronts that he also would like to see the Knights reach the “last eight of the FFA Cup”.

Everyone at the Melbourne Knights welcomes Lionel to Somers Street and looks forward to seeing what he can bring to the table in 2022!

With Masudi, the 2022 squad is complete ahead of Friday nights round one clash against fellow Croatian club, Dandenong City SC. Don’t miss your opportunity this Friday to see the first team in action!

– Tom Hayes