PETALING JAYA: Teenage football sensation Mohd Nazmi Faiz may not be alone in Portugal when he begins his new professional career with Primeira Liga side Beira Mar.

 National Under-23 coach Ong Kim Swee will, for starters, be accompanying the 17-year-old midfielder during the pre-season in July while there is talk of another Malaysian player being signed up by a club in Portugal.

 Kim Swee, who is in Budapest with the national Under-22 squad, did not wish to speculate on who that player may be, preferring his charges to remain focused on their playing tour of Europe.

 “These are youngsters and I don’t want them to be unnecessarily distracted,” said Kim Swee from Budapest yesterday.

 Nazmi has joined the squad in Budapest after his successful trial with the Portuguese club. Nazmi, who played with the Harimau Muda A in the S-League, signed a three-year deal with Beira Mar last Monday.

 “I will be staying with Nazmi for a week or two in Aveiro to help him settle down. It’s to give him moral support while he gets accustomed to the new environment,” said Kim Swee.

 The national Under-22 squad got off to a bad start on their tour when they lost 5-0 to Hungarian club side Ferencvaros in Budapest last Wednesday. Kim Swee’s boys are scheduled to play a Hungarian selection today and another top club, Honved, in Budapest on Tuesday before moving on to Slovakia for a friendly against FK Dukla in Banska Bystrica on June 5.

 The Malaysians are preparing for the inaugural AFC Under-22 Asian Cup qualifier in Yangon next month.

 In the final phase of training at Wisma FAM from June 12-20, the team are scheduled to play their final warm-up match against Timor Leste on June 17.

 Malaysia are drawn with South Korea, Vietnam, Taiwan, Philippines and hosts Myanmar in Group G in the AFC Cup qualifiers from June 23-July 3.

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