The second most capped player on the Macedonian national team, Velice Sumulikoski, is close to completing a transfer to Chinese team Tianjin Teda.

Manager John Toshack might have excluded Velice Sumulikoski from the Macedonian national team for the upcoming friendly against Luxembourg on 29 February because the defensive midfielder is in the final stages of completing a transfer to Chinese top division side Tianjin Teda.  According to numerous reports out of Russia, including the popular newspaper sport-express, Sumulikoski left the Sibir training camp in Cyprus and will continue his career with a team from China.  Velice’s new club was unnamed by the Russian source but the Chinese club in question is Tianjin Teda.

Tianjin Teda finished in only 10th place out of 16 teams in 2011 so the club wants to improve on that position for this upcoming season.  The manager of Tianjin Teda is veteran Croatian coach Josip Kuže.  Sumulikoski will undergo medical tests once he arrives at Tianjin and if everything goes well, the transfer will become official.  His former club Sibir will get some compensation but this transfer has financial benefits for Velice Sumulikoski.  According to a newspaper report in China, Sumulikoski is expected to make $1.1 million per season with Tianjin Teda.

Sumulikoski’s 78 caps with the Macedonian national team are second only to Goce Sedloski who compiled 100 appearances during his international career.  Velice is currently the vice-captain on the national team behind Goran Pandev and served as the captain for Sibir.  Sumulikoski will turn 31 in April and decided that the financial offer made by the Chinese club was too good to pass up at this stage of his career.  This transfer also leads to an uncertain future for Sumulikoski when it comes to the national team.  Stevica Ristić has not been called up since he moved to South Korea while Toshack also left out Mario Gjurovski who recently transferred to a team from Thailand.