Alizanda bin Sitom (born 29 July 1970) is a

Brunei Brunei, officially Brunei Darussalam, is a country in Southeast Asia, situated on the northern coast of the island of Borneo. Apart from its coastline on the South China Sea, it is completely surrounded by the Malaysian state of Sarawak, with ...

an former

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who played as a

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

. Having played for the Brunei national representative team in Malaysia's M-League System at the turn of the century, he is notable for returning to DPMM for a third spell at the age of 46. In the year 2000, Alizanda was brought into the national representative team to replace Yunos Yusof who had retired after winning the

Malaysia Cup The Malaysia Cup (), formerly known as Malaya Cup, is an annual football tournament in Malaysia, held at the end of the calendar year. The cup was first held in 1921. Despite its prestige and popularity as the country's oldest cup tournament, i ...

the previous year. He was rotated with Jefry Mohammad and Ibrahim Abu Bakar as Brunei suffered relegation, and in the following season competed with a young

Wardun Yussof Mohammad Wardun bin Yussof (born 14 September 1981) is a Bruneian footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Kasuka FC of the Brunei Super League. Club career Wardun played for DPMM from 2006 to 2024, having returned from Wijaya FC after a brie ...

for the goalkeeper position as Brunei began life in Malaysia's Premier Two. Domestically, he played for the football team of the

Royal Brunei Armed Forces The Royal Brunei Armed Forces (RBAF); (ABDB), Jawi script, Jawi: , is the official organisation and collective term for all of the military forces or service branches of the sultanate of Brunei, Brunei Darussalam. The RBAF consists of three pr ...

MS ABDB Royal Brunei Armed Forces Sports Council; , commonly abbreviated MS ABDB, is the multi-sport club in charge of all sporting activities of all service branches of the Royal Brunei Armed Forces (RBAF, – ABDB), in the sultanate of Brunei Daruss ...

. He made appearances for his future club

DPMM FC Duli Pengiran Muda Mahkota Football Club (English language, English: His Royal Highness the Crown Prince of Brunei Football Club; Abbreviation, abbrev: DPMM or Brunei DPMM) is a professional association football, football club based in Bandar S ...

in the

AFC Champions League The AFC Champions League Elite (abbreviated as the ACL Elite) is an annual continental club association football, football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation, and contested by Asia's List of top-division football clubs i ...

against Geylang FC in

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

. Later in the year, he would meet face to face with Wardun in the final of the first

Brunei FA Cup The Brunei FA Cup is Brunei's premier knockout tournament in men's football. The current format is administered by the Football Association of Brunei Darussalam (FABD) since 2012. The championship winner will receive B$10,000 and first runner up ...

competition, but conceded to a Norsillmy Taha strike in the 30th minute to yield the victory to

Wijaya FC Wijaya Football Club (; abbrev: WFC) is a professional football club from Brunei that competes in the Brunei Super League. They are a founding member of both the B-League in 2002, as well as the Super League in 2012. They were also the inaugura ...

. When DPMM replaced Brunei in the

Malaysia Premier League The Malaysia Premier League () was the second-tier professional football league in Malaysia. It replaced the Liga Perdana 2 in the Malaysian football league system. The Malaysia Premier League was contested by 12 clubs. The season usually ra ...

at the start of the 2005–06 season, Alizanda transferred immediately to the royally-owned club, to compete for the goalkeeping position with

and Hamzah Abdul Rahman. He gained promotion to the

Malaysia Super League The Malaysia Super League (), known simply as the Super League (), is the men's top professional Football in Malaysia, football division of the Malaysian football league system. Administered by the Football Malaysia Limited Liability Partnersh ...

with DPMM but was largely second fiddle to Wardun. He was released in early 2009 following DPMM's signing of Azman Ilham Noor from

NBT FC NBT may refer to: Arts and media * National Black Theatre, New York, U.S. * National Black Theatre (Australia) (1972–1977), Sydney, Australia * ''Nature Biotechnology'', a scientific journal * ''Navbharat Times'', an Indian newspaper * '' Never B ...

. In the 2016 close season, DPMM announced that Alizanda had signed a contract after the release of Azman. Due to his age, he was assumed to be holding a coaching role but his head coach

Steve Kean Stephen Kean (born 30 September 1967) is a Scottish football coach and former player who was most recently the manager of Georgian club Torpedo Kutaisi. Kean played as a winger for clubs in the lower divisions of Scottish, English and Portugu ...

has confirmed that Alizanda will compete for the goalkeeping position with Wardun, rekindling a rivalry last occurred eight years ago. On 2 April 2017, Alizanda started the match against

Hougang United Hougang United Football Club is a professional football club based in Hougang, Singapore. The club competes in the Singapore Premier League, the top tier of Singaporean football. Founded in 1998 as Marine Castle United, the club changed its ...

and kept a clean sheet in a 2–0 victory. It was his first competitive match in 8 years and made him the oldest player to play in the S.League aged 46 years, 8 months and 4 days. He made four league appearances in total, the last being a 9–3 drubbing by

Home United Lion City Sailors Football Club, commonly referred to as the Sailors or LCS, is a Singaporean professional football club based in Bishan. It competes in the Singapore Premier League, the top tier of the Singapore football league system. Founded ...

. His age was 46 years, 9 months and 26 days on that date. In 2023, Alizanda come out from retirement and signed for

Brunei Super League The Brunei Super League ( abbr: BSL; – LSB) is a professional league for men's association football in the sultanate of Brunei Darussalam. It is at the top tier of the Bruneian football league system, and it is managed by the Football As ...

club,

Lun Bawang The Lun Bawang (formerly known as Trusan Murut and Mengalong Murut or Southern Murut) is an ethnic group found in Central Northern Borneo. They are indigenous to the southwest of Sabah (Interior Division including Labuan) and the northern reg ...

and was named the club captain ahead of the

2023 Brunei Super League The 2023 Brunei Super League was the ninth season of the Brunei Super League, the top association football, football league in Brunei since its establishment in 2012. The league began in March and concluded in November, contested by 16 teams. On ...

season.

References

External links

* 1970 births Living people Men's association football goalkeepers Bruneian men's footballers DPMM FC players Brunei (Liga Premier team) players Singapore Premier League players Brunei Super League players {{Brunei-footy-bio-stub