During the first weekend of March, seven Maltese players participated in the Major of Mons, Belgium. Massimo Cremona, Mark Gauci, Joe Borg Bonaci, Hansel Mallia, Charles Aquilina and Derek Conti took part in the Open category while Joe Mifsud chose to play in the veterans’ event.

On Saturday, the Maltese players were involved along with their clubs for which, Mifsud and Aquilina, playing for Palermo, failed to qualify from the group stages.

Mallia, playing for the home side of AS Hennuyer, lost in quarter final, Borg Bonaci lost in the semis with his Greek team, Falcons Athens, while Gauci and Cremona were fundamental for their Reggiana club to win the team competition. In the final, Reggiana beat Milano to obtain their second win in a row in this Major event for clubs.

On Sunday, for the individual competition, all Maltese managed to qualify with the exception of Aquilina who was eliminated on goal difference.

In the Open category, Derek Conti, Mark Gauci and Hansel Mallia lost in the last 32 stage to Nikos Beis, Sami Targui and Valery Dejardin with a minimal score while Borg Bonaci and Cremona reached the quarter-finals.

At this stage, Cremona was eliminated by Carlos Flores while Borg Bonaci managed to reach the final, where he met Spanish player Carlos Flores. The Spaniard showed superiority to win 4-0.

In the veterans category, Mifsud qualified from the groups but only managed the last 16 stage as he then lost to Portuguese player Nuno Nuronha with a golden goal after the match had finished in a 1-1 draw.

During the same weekend, an international friendly was organised against Greece. Malta’s national team had the better of the Greek players and won 1-0 in a very close encounter. The match was balanced and the games were all close. Mallia made all the difference winning his match to give Malta another prestigious result in the international field.