A Cabinet Being Built in Real Time
Kuching City do not have a century of silverware behind them — they have a decade of relentless upward movement. Every line below represents a first for the club, and most of them have arrived in the last three seasons under Aidil Sharin Sahak.
Kuching City remain a club without a major domestic trophy. What they have instead is the steepest improvement curve in the Malaysian game — three consecutive seasons of finishing higher than the last.
Kuching City First-Team Core
Aidil Sharin Sahak does not build squads around one superstar. Kuching City’s identity is a compact, drilled defensive block, a goalkeeper who wins points on his own, and a front line that punishes Teams on the transition. The spine that took them to second place — Haziq Nadzli in goal, James Okwuosa at the back, Ronald Ngah leading the line — is the one that now steps into Asian competition.
Core squad members as of the 2026/27 pre-season under head coach Aidil Sharin Sahak. Kuching City operate under the MFL’s six-import quota, so the foreign contingent is deliberately small and heavily scrutinised — Aidil overhauled roughly 90% of the squad ahead of the 2024–25 campaign and has recruited selectively since. Full squad numbers and new signings are subject to the transfer window; check back for the latest Kuching City team news.
City of Unity
A community club with a corporate spine. Green and white, “City of Unity” across the chest, a squad blending Sarawakian talent with carefully chosen imports — Kuching City sell an identity, not just a team.
Hardest Team to Beat
Sixteen wins, five draws and only three defeats in 2025/26 — the second-best defensive record in the division and the fewest losses of any club outside Johor Darul Ta’zim.
The Aidil Project
Three seasons, three improvements: 13th, then 4th, then 2nd. Malaysia’s Coach of the Year has turned the smallest budget in the top four into the country’s most efficient football team.
The Men Who Took Kuching to Asia
There are no marquee European names here and no eight-figure wage bill. Kuching City’s key men are recruited on work-rate, discipline and fit — and that is exactly why the model has held up over three seasons.
Ronald Ngah
The Cameroonian was the club’s leading scorer across all competitions and finished fourth in the 2025/26 Super League scoring charts with ten league goals — the only non-JDT, non-Selangor player in the top four. Direct, physical and lethal on the counter.
Haziq Nadzli
Second in the league’s clean-sheet standings with six by the midpoint of the season, behind only JDT’s Syihan Hazmi. His save from Kpah Sherman on the final day is, in a very real sense, the reason Kuching City are in Asia.
James Okwuosa
The Nigerian centre-back captains the side and anchors the low block that made Kuching City the hardest team in Malaysia to break down outside Johor. Aggressive in the air, calm under pressure, and the on-field voice of Aidil’s system.
João Pedro
The Brazilian scored on the opening day against Kelantan and repeatedly changed games from the bench during the run-in. Aidil’s willingness to use him as a late weapon rather than a guaranteed starter is a large part of why Kuching drew so few games they should have won.
Jimmy Raymond
One of the Sarawakian players who give the squad its regional identity. Kuching City’s recruitment model depends on local players covering the depth positions competently — Raymond is a benchmark for that pipeline.
Ahmad Israiwah
Introduced alongside João Pedro and Jimmy Raymond in the decisive final-day triple substitution that saw out the win over KL City. A tempo controller in a side that wins by refusing to lose control.
The Aidil Sharin Effect
Born in Singapore in July 1977, Aidil Sharin Sahak played for Home United, Tanjong Pagar United and Tampines Rovers before moving into coaching. He managed Home United, then spent three formative years at Kedah Darul Aman from 2019 to 2022, and had a brief spell with Indonesia’s Persikabo 1973 before Kuching City appointed him on 2 August 2023.
His impact is measurable rather than atmospheric. He inherited a side that had just finished 13th and immediately reshaped the recruitment brief: fewer, better imports; Sarawakian players in the depth roles; and a non-negotiable defensive shape. Roughly 90% of the squad was overhauled ahead of 2024–25, which produced a fourth-place finish and Malaysia’s Coach of the Year award at the National Football Awards.
Aidil is one of a small group of Singaporean coaches to have succeeded across the Causeway, and by some distance the most successful. Keeping him is the single largest variable in Kuching City’s 2026/27 season — more important than any signing, and more important than the ACL2 draw.
Nine league places gained in three seasons, on a budget outside the division’s top five. No Malaysian club has improved faster in the modern era.
The Long Flight East
Kuching City play at the Sarawak Stadium (Stadium Negeri) in Kuching, listed at a 26,000 capacity for Super League fixtures. Its greatest asset is geography: every peninsular club has to fly across the South China Sea, land, acclimatise and play — a burden that shows up in results far more often than visiting managers care to admit.
Attendances have climbed in step with results. The club averaged a modest 2,423 in its first Super League season in 2023; by 2025/26 the visit of Johor Darul Ta’zim drew 12,705, and the final-day decider against Kuala Lumpur City produced the loudest night in the club’s history. Sarawakian support is famously loyal but not blindly so — it has to be earned, and Aidil’s side has earned it.
The “City of Unity” branding introduced in 2020 is more than marketing in a state as ethnically diverse as Sarawak. Kuching City deliberately position themselves as the club for all communities in the city, and the matchday demographic reflects that in a way few Malaysian clubs manage.
The AFC Champions League Two will test the infrastructure. Continental fixtures bring stricter venue requirements, longer travel for the squad and a fixture calendar that leaves no recovery weeks. How the club handles that operationally — not just on the pitch — will define 2026/27.
Structure Over Spectacle
Kuching City are not a possession side and have never pretended to be. Aidil Sharin’s team defends in a compact mid-to-low block, concedes territory willingly, and attacks in fast, direct sequences through Ronald Ngah. It is a model built for a squad that cannot outspend anyone — and it works because every player accepts the role.
The numbers back the approach. Only three defeats in twenty-four league matches in 2025/26 and a goal difference of plus-31 from a side that was not among the division’s highest scorers. They win by not losing, then convert one or two clear chances.
The obvious question for 2026/27 is whether that translates to Asia. Against ACL2 opposition with more possession and better forwards, the low block is either the perfect away-leg tool or a trap. Aidil’s record suggests the former.
Sarawak Against the Peninsula
Kuching City’s fiercest fixtures are geographic and recent rather than historic. The East Malaysian derby with Sabah carries genuine regional weight, and the club’s relationship with the wider Sarawak football scene — including Sarawak United — remains a live conversation in the state.
The newest rivalry is the one nobody planned. Kuching City eliminated Selangor from the Malaysia Cup semi-finals and then took their Asian qualification place by a single point in the same season. For the Red Giants’ support, that is not a coincidence they will forget quickly.
And then there is Johor. Two defeats in two league meetings and a Malaysia Cup final loss in 2025/26 make JDT the wall Kuching City have not yet climbed. The 2026/27 season opens with exactly that fixture — the Charity Shield on 21 August 2026 at Sultan Ibrahim Stadium.
Built to Survive
Kuching City are co-owned by Fazzrudin Abdul Rahman and Kamaludin Akil, with Iswandi Ali Hassan as chief executive. That continuity at board level — the same names across every season page since 2022 — is unusual in Malaysian football and is the quiet reason the club has been able to plan in multi-year cycles rather than survive window to window.
Commercially, the club is backed by Press Metal, one of Sarawak’s largest industrial groups, with kits supplied by StarSports. Financial Fair Play rules introduced by the MFL — including an 80% salary-cap ratio — have punished clubs that overreached; Kedah Darul Aman, Perak, Sri Pahang and PDRM have all exited the Super League since 2025 over licensing or financial failures. Kuching City have passed every licensing round without drama.
The Sarawak state government has publicly committed support to both Kuching City and Sarawak United, which matters in a state where football funding has historically been fragmented. Combined with a stable ownership group and a coach who has stayed three seasons, the off-field picture is more solid than at most Malaysian clubs of comparable size.
The risk is scale. ACL2 participation raises costs sharply — travel, licensing, squad depth — for a club whose revenue base is a single East Malaysian city. Managing that without breaking the model that got them here is the board’s defining test.
Frequently Asked Questions
When were Kuching City founded?
In 2015, as Kuching FA. They won the inaugural Liga Bolasepak Rakyat that year and were renamed Kuching City FC in 2021 following the “City of Unity” rebrand.
Where did Kuching City finish in 2025/26?
Second, on 53 points from 24 matches — 16 wins, five draws, three defeats. It is the highest finish in the club’s history and one point ahead of third-placed Selangor.
Are Kuching City in Asian competition?
Yes. Their second-place finish secured Malaysia’s AFC Champions League Two slot for 2026/27 — the first continental qualification of that level in the club’s history.
Who is the Kuching City coach?
Singaporean Aidil Sharin Sahak, appointed on 2 August 2023. He was named Malaysia’s Coach of the Year after guiding the club to fourth place in 2024–25.
What is Kuching City’s nickname?
Il Gatto — The Cats — a direct nod to the name Kuching, which means “cat” in Malay, and to the city’s own feline symbolism.
Where do Kuching City play?
At the Sarawak Stadium (Stadium Negeri) in Kuching, listed at 26,000 capacity for the 2026/27 Super League season.
Have Kuching City won a major trophy?
Not yet. They were Malaysia Cup runners-up in 2026, MFL Challenge Cup runners-up in 2023, and have reached two FA Cup semi-finals. Their only title is the 2015 Liga Bolasepak Rakyat.
Who is Kuching City’s top scorer?
Cameroonian forward Ronald Ngah led the club in 2025/26 and finished fourth in the Super League scoring charts with ten league goals.
From Super League nights at Stadium Negeri to a first-ever AFC Champions League Two campaign, every Kuching City match is analysed by our AI engine across the 2026/27 season. Head to AI Pro Predictions for data-backed soccer predictions covering Malaysian, Asian and world football — and bookmark this page for the latest Kuching City squad news, stats and betting angles.