A leading German football club has denied taking Burmese soccer star Kyaw Ko Ko on trial, contrary to reports by Soccer Myanmar last week.

“I can confirm that there has been no contact whatsoever between the 1. FC Nürnberg (1.FCN) and the said player,” club spokesperson Katharina Wildermuth told The Irrawaddy.

Soccer Myanmar caused a stir by reporting that Kyaw Ko Ko was offered a trial with the Bundesliga club. The news was also carried by the website of the Asean Football Federation.

Had the deal gone through, the 19-year-old would have been the first Burmese soccer player ever to play in a professional football league in Europe.

The striker was awarded Best Player of Myanmar 2011 last month for his performance in the Southeast Asian Games in Indonesia.

Myanmar won bronze after routing Laos, Brunei, the Philippines and Timor-Leste and eventually beating Vietnam 4-1 in the bronze medal rematch. Kyaw Ko Ko scored five of the teams’ 13 goals.

The US $3,000 player of the year award would have been dwarfed by the $500,000 transfer fee which the German soccer club was apparently ready to pay for Kyaw Ko Ko, according to the Soccer Myanmar report.

1.FCN, one of the oldest and most successful clubs in Germany, ranked sixth in last season's Bundesliga.

Kyaw Ko Ko currently plays in midfield for Zeya Shwe Myay FC. The football club currently ranks fifth in the Myanmar National League (MNL).

The MNL, which succeeded the largely ignored Myanmar Premier League in 2009, ran a test season in the same year and its first full season in 2010.

It is uncertain how the MNL will be able to excel as long as corruption seems to be endemic. Business tycoon Zaw Zaw, who in a leaked US embassy cable was called “one of Burma's up-and-coming cronies,” is chairman of the governing Myanmar Football Federation (MFF) which runs the league.

Zaw Zaw, who also owns Delta United FC, hired Snr-Gen Than Shwe's grandson to play on his team, according to the US embassy cable.

In March last year, Sepp Blatter, president of the Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA), visited the soccer-crazy country and the Goal II academy in Mandalay, which his organization funds.

Upon his return to Switzerland he faced fierce media criticism and calls for an investigation into why a soccer grant had apparently been awarded to Zaw Zaw’s Max Myanmar conglomerate as opposed to the MFF.

The Ayeyarwady Football Academy in Pathein was inaugurated as a second training ground for future Burmese soccer talent in November last year. It is funded by donations from the Asian Football Confederation, claims The Myanmar Times.

Burma was one of Asia’s most successful football nations in the 1960s and 1970s, winning the Southeast Asian Games five times in a row. Then began a decline which was only somewhat halted with last year's bronze medal.

Burma will host the 27th Southeast Asian Games in Naypyidaw in 2013. The event comes as the country undergoes unprecedented political changes. Burma hosted the games twice in Rangoon during the 1960s, dominating the gold medals tally both times.