Agu Casmir

Agu Casmir (born 23 March 1984[1] in Lagos, Nigeria) is a Singaporean-Nigerian former footballer who last played as a striker or attacking-midfielder for Singapore Premier League club Warriors FC. Born in Nigeria, he played for the Singapore national team.

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)
2014-2015 Warriors FC 12 (5)
International career‡
2003–2007 Singapore U23
2004–2012 Singapore 37 (13)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 24 May 2009
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 06:01, 5 January 2014 (UTC)

Club career

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

Casmir 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.

In 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.[2] However, he did not at Persija Jakarta on 17 January, 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.[2][3] It was subsequently reported that Casmir had left his residence in Toa Payoh with his belongings on 19 January.[4]

It was consequently reported on 19 February 2006 in The Straits Times that Casmir had purportedly been in Canada and had no intention of further pursuing a career in football. The report quoted 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).[5]

After a few weeks, reports emerged that Casmir 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 Casmir from the national squad for a year and fined him S$20,000 for his actions involving Persija Jakarta.[6]

On 19 September 2007, 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 Casmir's contract. Nevertheless, when the FIFA World Cup 2010 qualifier game against Lebanon loomed, he trained with one of his former clubs, Young Lions, to keep his fitness at peak condition to be eligible for a call-up to the national team.

Casmir did not 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. Controversially, he was released after just 3 games, without any goals to his name. Gombak United again re-signed him in 2009.

Casmir 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 on the LionsXII squad for 2013, Casmir was left without a club for a year until he signed with Indonesian club Persebaya Bhayangkara at the end of 2013.[7][8] In June 2014, he signed with S.League Warriors FC, taking jersey number 22.

International career

Born in Nigeria, Casmir was offered Singapore citizenship via the Foreign Sports Talent Scheme in 2004.[9] He was a member of the Singapore national team, which won the Tiger Cup regional football championship in 2005.

Casmir was part of the national football team for the 2005 Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games) held at the Philippines. Singapore failed to advance beyond the group stage with Casmir failing to score a goal.[5] He was also part of the team for the 2007 SEA Games where Singapore won the bronze medal.

Casmir's 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.

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. "Agu Casmir Stats, News, Bio". ESPN. Retrieved 15 December 2022.
  2. Fang, Nicholas (20 January 2006). "Where in the world is Agu Casmir?". The Straits Times. Singapore Press Holdings. pp. H21.
  3. Fang, Nicholas (21 January 2006). "Casmir contacts Singapore, Indonesia". The Straits Times. Singapore Press Holdings. pp. S22.
  4. Fang, Nicholas; Foo, Alvin (2 February 2006). "Casmir left in the dead of night". The Straits Times. pp. H8.
  5. "Agu calls - and he wants to quit soccer". The Straits Times. 19 February 2006. p. 41.
  6. "The Power of Words". Archived from the original on 17 August 2016. Retrieved 9 September 2007.
  7. "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.
  8. "Agu Casmir's Indonesia stint comes to early end". Archived from the original on 28 March 2016. Retrieved 13 February 2014.
  9. "The imports Singapore called upon under the Foreign Talent Scheme". FourFourTwo. Archived from the original on 17 September 2018. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
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