Sandy Walsh enjoyed a highly successful first season in Southeast Asian club football after leaving a career spent in the Belgian Pro League and a six-month spell with Yokohama F. Marinos in Japan, according to ESPN. He had previously featured in the Europa League for Genk and Zulte Waregem before departing Europe at the start of last year.
Buriram United closed out the 2025-26 campaign with a 1-0 extra-time victory over PT Prachuap in the Thai FA Cup final, completing a treble after earlier triumphs in Thai League 1 and the ASEAN Club Championship. The win extended a run of dominance for the club, which has claimed five straight league titles in Thailand and multiple domestic and regional trophies since the 2021-22 season, according to ESPN.
Walsh said he was quickly struck by the professionalism at Chang Arena and praised the organisation and attention to detail that underpin Buriram’s sustained success. He told ESPN that the club’s structure and winning mentality helped secure the league title early and made the season a positive experience.
A former Netherlands youth international who pledged his international future to Indonesia in 2023 through his mother, Walsh welcomed the regional rivalries that come with playing in Southeast Asia. He told ESPN that competing in the ASEAN Club Championship offered a platform to measure himself against teams from Malaysia, Singapore and other countries and highlighted Buriram as perennial contenders in those tournaments.
Walsh spent the season alongside established internationals such as Suphanat Mueanta, Theerathon Bunmathan and Supachai Jaided, plus Singapore striker Ilhan Fandi and Philippines goalkeeper Neil Etheridge. Those teammates will become opponents soon: Indonesia meet Singapore in the group stage of the ASEAN Championship starting July 24, and have been drawn against Thailand at next January’s AFC Asian Cup, according to ESPN.
