La'Vere Corbin-Ong

La'Vere Lawrence Corbin-Ong (born 22 April 1991) is a professional footballer who plays for Malaysia Super League club Johor Darul Ta'zim and the Malaysia national team. Mainly a left-back, he is also capable of playing occasionally as a centre-back or left-midfielder. He is known for his long throw-ins and defensive attributes.
Born in England, he previously represented the Canada national team before switching to represent Malaysia in 2019.
Corbin-Ong was born in London, England, where his parents, Lawrence Corbin (Barbadian) and Elizabeth Ong (Malaysian Chinese), were studying psychiatry and nursing, respectively. He was one year old when his family moved to Edmonton, the capital city of Alberta. When he was four years of age, his family moved to North Vancouver, where he was raised.
He played a variety of sports in his youth, including football, lacrosse, gridiron football and tennis. Corbin-Ong was six years old when he started playing football for the Lynn Valley SA.
He played for Capilano University in Canada for a season after high school, then joined the Vancouver Whitecaps Residency program. In 2012, he was set to attend the University of British Columbia and join their UBC Thunderbirds soccer team, but while waiting for the new season in five months went to Europe, where he got a tryout with German fifth tier side FC Pommern Greifswald.
Corbin-Ong spent two years playing for the Whitecaps Reserves team, making 29 appearances for the club in 2010 and 2011, when the team competed in USL Premier Development League.
On 2 July 2012, Corbin-Ong moved to German fifth tier side Pommern Greifswald in the Oberliga Nord spending two seasons at the club. He make his club debut on 12 August 2012 in a league match against BFC Dynamo. On 30 March 2013, Corbin-Ong scored his first goal for the club against Anker Wismar which ended up in a 3–2 win.
In July 2014, Corbin-Ong moved to the fourth tier German club, Berliner AK 07 in the Regionalliga playing another two seasons with the club. On 3 August 2014, Corbin-Ong make his club debut against Germania Halberstadt. He would than scored his first goal for the club on 22 March 2015 scoring the only goal in the match against Wacker Nordhausen which earns his team the three points in the league. In the next match on 29 March, he scored another goal against VfB Auerbach in a 3–1 win.
On 25 August 2015, Corbin-Ong received the 'Man of the Match' award for putting up a magnificent performances in a 3–0 win against SV Babelsberg 03 where he was involved in all the goal scoring once and assisting twice.
After receiving interest from 2. Bundesliga club Union Berlin in 2015, Corbin-Ong signed with FSV Frankfurt in the 3. Liga in June 2016. He make his club debut on 30 July 2016 against Holstein Kiel.
Corbin-Ong joined Eerste Divisie side Go Ahead Eagles on 3 July 2017. He make his debut for the club playing the entire 90th minute against FC Emmen on 22 August 2017. However, he was plagued by injuries during his time with the club and therefore make a total overall of 10 appearances for the club.
On 24 November 2017, Corbin-Ong was signed by Malaysian Super League club Johor Darul Ta'zim. Due to Corbin-Ong's mother being from Malaysia, he was classified as a local player. He make his club debut in the 2018 Malaysia Super League season against Kedah FA on 3 February 2018 where he also assisted Marcos António to seal a 2–1 win. In the next match against PKNP on 6 February, he recorded another assist in a 3–0 win. On 14 February, Corbin-Ong played in the club AFC Cup match against Indonesian side Persija Jakarta in a fiercely battle that ended in a 2–0 win. On 5 May, he scored his first goal for the club against Negeri Sembilan in a 4–0 away win.
On 5 March 2019, Corbin-Ong played in the club AFC Champions League fixtures against Japanese side, Kashima Antlers.
On 14 April 2022, Corbin-Ong assisted twice in the club famous 5–0 victory over Chinese side, Guangzhou.
On 6 March 2023, Corbin-Ong scored his first brace in his career during a 7–0 thrashing victory against Negeri Sembilan.
In March 2017, Corbin-Ong received his first call-up to the Canada national team. He made his international debut when he came on a second-half substitute in a 1–1 friendly draw with Scotland.
In June 2019, Corbin-Ong made his Malaysia debut after starting in the friendly match against Nepal. He was allowed to switch allegiance to Malaysia as his previous appearance for Canada was in a friendly match. He scored his first international goal for Malaysia on 7 June 2019 in the FIFA World Cup Qualifier against Timor-Leste which Malaysia won 7–1.
On 8 June 2022, Corbin-Ong seal the win scoring the final goal in the 2023 AFC Asian Cup qualification match in a 3–1 win against Turkmenistan.
On 22 August 2022, he scored the goal against host Thailand in the 2022 King's Cup.
Corbin-Ong represents the nation at the 2023 AFC Asian Cup held in Qatar where he played in all of Malaysia group stages match.
Corbin-Ong was born in London to a Barbadian father and a Malaysian Chinese mother, but moved to Canada at the age of one and is therefore eligible to play for Canada, England, Barbados and Malaysia internationally.
International goals
Johor Darul Ta'zim
Malaysia