Kelantan The Real Warriors F.C.

This article is about Kelantan The Real Warriors. For Kelantan Football Club, see Kelantan F.C. For Kelantan Red Warrior, see Kelantan Red Warrior F.C.

Kelantan The Real Warriors Football Club (Malay: Kelab Bola Sepak Kelantan The Real Warriors) is a Malaysian professional football club based in Kota Bharu, Kelantan.^[2][3][4] The club plays in the Malaysia Super League, the top-flight football league of Malaysia, after being promoted from the Malaysia Premier League in 2022.^[5]

Kelantan The Real Warriors

Full name	Kelantan The Real Warriors Football Club
Nickname(s)	The Real Warriors[1]
Short name	KTRW
Founded	2016; 9 years ago (2016), as MPKB-BRI UBeS
Ground	Sultan Muhammad IV Stadium
Capacity	22,000
President	Annuar Musa
CEO	Irwan Rizal
Head coach	E. Elavarasan
League	Malaysia Super League
2024–25	Malaysia Super League, 13th of 13
Home colours Away colours Third colours
Current season

History

Formation and early years

The club was previously known as Majlis Perbandaran Kota Bharu-Bandar Raya Islam Urusetia Belia and Sukan Negeri Kelantan Football Club (MPKB-BRI UBeS FC). They entered the Malaysian football competition in 2016 when the club was accepted to compete in the FAM League.^[6] The club finished the season at the eight place.

For the 2017 season, they participated in the Malaysia FA Cup.^[7][8][9] The club was later rebranded to Kelantan United Football Club as an effort to bring in support in the local area. In 2023, the club was promoted to the Malaysia Super League for the first time in their history. On 2 June 2023, Kelantan United recorded their first win in the top flight against city rivals Kelantan, with the score of 4–1.

Rebranding

In the 2024–25 Malaysia Super League season, Kelantan United was rebranded as Kelantan Darul Naim Football Club. The club's president Rozi Muhammad said the rebranding comes from the management's desire to unite Kelantan supporters under one banner.^[10] In November 2024, the club travelled to India and took part in the 2024 edition of the Sikkim Gold Cup.^[11][12] In 2025, they were rebranded again, this time as Kelantan The Real Warriors Football Club.

Crest and colours

Crest

The club has used one primary crest since its participation in the national level football league competition before the club introduce a new crest starting in 2017 season to solidify its new branding.^[13][14]

• 
  2016
• 
  2017–2018
• 
  2019–2022
• 
  2023
• 
  2024–2025
• 
  2025−present

Colours

Kelantan has mostly worn black with mixture of red as their home kit.^[15] For 2017 season, the club play in red with a trim of white for home kit.^[14] Kelantan's away colours are usually white with green trim.^[14]

Ownership and finances

Years	Kit manufacturer	Sponsors
2016	Sala	Minyak Mestika, SH Prima Trading
2017	GomoGi	MPKB-BRI
2018	Kronos	Gelumbang Jaya
2019	SkyHawk	U-Shop, MySports Station
2020		Visit Kelantan 2020, Jaya Mas Mining
2021	Umbro	Kelantan Melangkah Kehadapan, Yakult
2022	Gatti
2023	IAM	Kelantan Melangkah Kehadapan, Nasken Coffee
2024–2025	PUC Sport	Visit Kelantan 2024

Season by season record

Season	League										Cup			Asia
	Division	Pld	W	D	L	F	A	D	Pts	Pos	Charity	Malaysia[a]	FA	Competition	Result
2016	FAM	14	2	4	8	12	23	-11	10	8th Group B	–	Not qualified	–	–	–
2017		14	5	6	3	21	16	-5	21	5th Group A	–	Not qualified	Second round	–	–
2018		12	2	2	8	13	21	-8	8	7th Group A	–	Not qualified	–	–	–
2019	M3	26	21	3	2	93	20	+73	66	1st	–	TBD	Third round	–	–
2020	MPL	11	4	0	7	13	19	-6	12	8th	–	Qualified	Second round	–	–
2021		20	8	2	10	25	28	-3	27	7th	–	Qualified	–	–	–
2022		18	6	7	5	23	19	+4	25	5th	–	Qualified	–	–	–
2023	MSL	26	4	5	17	29	65	-36	17	12th	–	Round of 16	Round of 16	–	–
2024–25	MSL	24	2	1	21	16	82	-36	17	13th	–	Round of 16	Round of 16	–	–

1. The Malaysia Cup, Challenge and FAM Cup

Champions

Runners-up

Third place

Promoted

Relegated

P = Played W = Games won D = Games drawn L = Games lost F = Goals for A = Goals against Pts = Points Pos = Final position N/A = No answer

FAM = FAM League M3 = Malaysia M3 League MPL = Malaysia Premier League MSL = Malaysia Super League

QR1 = First Qualifying Round QR2 = Second Qualifying Round QR3 = Third Qualifying Round QR4 = Fourth Qualifying Round RInt = Intermediate Round R1 = Round 1 R2 = Round 2 R3 = Round 3

R4 = Round 4 R5 = Round 5 R6 = Round 6 GR = Group stage QF = Quarter-finals SF = Semi-finals RU = Runners-up S = Shared W = Winners

Top goalscorers

Season	Player	Goals
2017	Raim Azmi	4
2018	Masri Asyraf	5
2019	Fakhrul Zaman	35
2020	Gassama Alfussainey	6
2021	Gassama Alfussainey	12
2022	Jacob Njoku	10
2023	OJ Porteria	7
2024–25	Oday Kharoub	4

Players

First-team squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 2 DF  PHI Simen Lyngbø 5 DF  CIV Alexandre Yeoulé 7 FW  NGA Prince Aggreh 8 MF  CAN Albert Kang 10 MF  BHR Habib Haroon 11 DF  MAS Wan Amirul Afiq 12 FW  NGA Ifedayo Olusegun (captain) 13 GK  BUL Damyan Damyanov 14 MF  MAS Nor Azam Azih 15 DF  MAS Nik Umar 17 MF  MAS Syafik Ismail 18 GK  MAS Azfar Arif 19 MF  MAS Syaahir Saiful

No. Pos. Nation Player 20 MF  MAS Danial Haqim 23 DF  MAS Azwan Aripin 25 MF  MAS Syahir Rashid 26 FW  MAS T. Saravanan 29 MF  MAS Farris Izdiham 33 GK  MAS Fikri Che Soh 45 DF  MAS Faris Shah 50 DF  MAS Rakesh Munusamy 70 FW  MAS Sean Selvaraj 88 MF  MAS Asraff Aliffuddin — FW  MAS Khairul Izuan — FW  SLE Abdul Sesay — DF  SLE Yusuf Sesay

Coaches

Name	Nationality	From	To
Abdullah Muhammad	Malaysia	2016	2016
Azli Mahmood	Malaysia	2016	2016
Kamarudin Muhamad	Malaysia	2017	2017
Abdullah Muhammad	Malaysia	2018	2018
Zahasmi Ismail	Malaysia	2019	17 September 2020
Akira Higashiyama	Japan	1 January 2021	30 June 2021
Nazrulerwan Makmor	Malaysia	19 July 2021	9 January 2022
Syamsul Saad	Malaysia	10 January 2022	8 August 2022
Tomáš Trucha	Czech Republic	30 December 2022	8 April 2023
Ailton Silva	Brazil	15 June 2023	21 November 2023
Park Jae-hong	South Korea	19 April 2024	24 January 2025
E. Elavarasan	Malaysia	1 July 2025	current

Club officials

Position	Name
President	Annuar Musa
CEO	Irwan Rizal
Manager/Head coach	E. Elavarasan
Assistant coaches	Muamer Salibašić Hafizi Awang Farisham Ismail Zairul Fitree Ishak Ashadi Mohd Yusoff
Goalkeeping coach	Khairul Nizan Mohd Taib
Fitness coach	Kamarul Dinis Kamarudin
Doctor	Nabil Aiman Noor Adnan Ahmad Baihaqi Abd Rahman Muhammad Hafiz Kamaruzaman Ahmad Waqiuddin Rajab
Physiotherapist	Muhammad Amir Fadzlan

Honours

Domestic competitions

League

• Division 3/M3 League
  • Champions (1): 2019

International competitions

• All India Governor's Gold Cup
  • Quarter-Finals: 2024