Liberia international defender, Adolphus Nagbe Marshall, fell short of clinching the Maltese Second Division best player award after being beaten by Colombian defender Sebastiano Perdomo.

The 24-year-old Colombian won the second division top award ahead of Marshall and 24-year-old Maltese midfielder, Roderick Taliana. The award would have been the crowning factor for Marshall’s debut year with his club, Gudja United, after he helped them win the league title and gain promotion to the first division.

Despite missing out on winning the top title, Marshall said he remains grateful for his achievement. He told Gudja United media that his objective during the season was to achieve and he considers the club promotion more important than the individual accolade he missed out on.

“I’m still grateful for the love Gudja United is giving me each day. Most importantly, we reached our target as champions. The individual accolade might have been exciting, but the greatest target of winning the league and gaining promotion is more important and we will work harder to prove something in the first division,” Marshall said.

The 25-year-old former NPA Anchors defender is currently in Liberia on vacation where he told The Bush Chicken he sees his loss of the award as a big motivation for the upcoming season. Marshall said missing out on the top award is another way of telling him to double his performance in the upcoming season.

He said, “It’s about time that I remain focused and keep doing my best to help my team. We are in the first division and it will be a huge task for us going against the top teams. We are newly promoted. We are going in the league as underdogs and we must do more to prove ourselves.”

Marshall is expected to join his team early in June for their preseason.

Featured photo by T. Kla Wesley Jr.