Young Players Give New Hope To Malaysian Football

By Ahmad Nazrin Syahmi Mohamad Arif KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 24 (Bernama) -- After being shackled for almost 30 years with deteriorating performance, the successes recorded by the young national squad at the 2019 ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) Championship gave a positive omen that Malaysian football is now heading towards excellence. The impression is clear in the minds of national football fans after the Under 15 years (U-15) squad emerged as champions in the AFF U-15 in Thailand and the U-18 squad was runner-up in the AFF U-18 recently. More excitingly, both the national young squad recorded surprises by beating one of the Asian giants, Australia 3-0, in their respective matches, to simultaneously erase past records of meetings which saw Malaysia appearing to be facing an impossible task of beating the ‘Socceroos’ squad in every junior championship. However, it was rather disappointing that the squad under Brad Maloney failed to repeat their praiseworthy performance when facing the squad coached by Gary Rudy Peter Van Egmond when it narrowly lost 0-1 in the final. For former national squad’s coach, Dollah Salleh, the quarters concerned must have a special plan so that the quality of the young national players could be maintained always at the best level until they don the national senior squad jersey. ‘’Truthfully, I was surprised and did not expect Malaysia to win 3-0 because Australia as we know is a great team at the ASEAN level. They (Australia) easily beat Vietnam and Thailand with big gaps, and we, on our part, lost to Vietnam in the early part of the championship. ‘’They (young players) deserve praise but the higher-ups must play a more effective role, if possible look after them from every aspect, well. Normally, we are good at the junior level but upon entering a higher level, many disappear from the radar,’’ he told Bernama. Commenting further, the former national striker harboured a desire to see Malaysia returning as among the Asian football powers, such as in the era of the 1990s. ‘’My advice, we must cast our sight further and think of how we can compete with the greatness of Japan, South Korea and several Middle Eastern countries. ‘’We are great at the ASEAN level, and now is time to strive for the Asian level,’’ said Dollah Salleh who is now coaching the Pahang state team in the Malaysian League competition. National football legend, Khalid Ali, who was proud at the achievements, said that the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) together with other stakeholders, must always find means to boost the performance of the national young players and should not look back. -- BERNAMA