Cambodian national team striker Khim Borey has joined Thai Premier League club Sisaket Muangthai FC on a one-year loan deal, confirmed his former team Phnom Penh Crown Tuesday.

“I’m so happy to play in Thailand,” said the highly rated 21-year-old from Takeo after putting pen to paper at the club’s home base in northeast Thailand.

“It’s always been my goal to play abroad – to experience other cultures and countries. It’s a dream come true for me.”

Borey leaves Metfone C-League champions Crown having failed to play a single competitive game for the team since his arrival in the close season three months ago. A domestic ban on his involvement in the ongoing 2011 Samdech Hun Sen Cup, in which Crown have reached the quarterfinals, meant that he only appeared in friendly matches.

During his four-year stint with National Defence Ministry, Borey collected the Golden Boot award from the 2008 Cambodian Premier League season when he top scored with 18 goals as his team finished runners-up, and he also captained the Army team to a Hun Sen Cup title last season, beating Crown 3-2 in the final.

Borey made his international debut against Syria in the 2007 Nehru Cup, having progressed rapidly the same year from the national youth team, through the U23 side to the senior squad. In 2008, he scored five goals in eleven appearances for the Kingdom and then registered an international hat-trick against Timor Leste in the 2010 AFF Suzuki Cup qualifiers held in Vientiane last October.

It was these recent performances that caught the eye of Sisaket Muangthai’s English coach David Booth, who was coaching Laos at the time.

Borey is the first Cambodian to sign for a Thai Premier League team with four other players, all from Phnom Penh Crown, previously joining Thai Division 1 clubs. ‘Mr Left’ Chan Rithy completed a move to Nakhon Pathom in April last year, while Keo Sokngorn, Srey Veasna and Ly Ravy have since followed suit to other second tier sides.  

Newly appointed Crown coach Bojan Hodak gave his blessing to the loan deal. “It’s disappointing to lose a player of Khim Borey’s quality but it’s a fantastic opportunity for him to play abroad and improve technically. We wouldn’t stand in his way at this point in his career,” he said.