Legends That We Forgot To Remember

Sitting on the ugly spot of 147th in the Fifa World Ranking is nothing but a eye sore. Not when at one point Malaysia qualified for the Olympics and only 1 game away from qualifying for the 1982 Spain World Cup! (Bet you didn’t know that ha! Ill tell you all about that soon). Since then it has been all down hill for the faith of our national football thanks to various factors.

I got the chance to meet the cream of the crop that gave us something to cheer about till today when i was invited by @maxiscomms for a session with legends from our footballing past Santokh Singh, Dato’ Soh Chin Aun, Hassan Sani & King James for a very personal session. This 4 gentlemen have been appointed by Maxis as ambassadors for the Fifa world cup. Personally, its the best decision made by Maxis to bring the legends. together so Malaysians get a opportunity to understand what our past was made off,what made is tick and what made us so special. Hopefully that will rub off the current crop of players, coaches,management who hopefully get inspired and start making a real difference.

I came into this session with one intention in mind. If these legends could reach the levels that they did, why isnt the sucees being replicated? Did we look at what happened during their time and why arent we doing well now?

The fab 4 seem like a bunch of very genuine individuals who were not shy to share, waiting to be asked and very outspoken (except Hassan Sani who is a bit of a shy guy).

Now to kick things off, i was told that this is the first time in almost 20 years that these 4 have been brought together to share their glorious past to the public! Its shocking that it toke someone 20 years to figure out that maybe its about time a success story is brought forward to share the ingredients that made them tick.

When going around the table, James who resides in Sabah has never been invited to be part of the Sabah FA setup and to contribute towards football, for that matter James has only had footballing clinics for children..THATS ALL!

Dato Soh on the other hand has been part of FAM under various capacity, from even being the national team manager (who has no powers). He has also spent much of his time in the development of the sport in various capacities including in the local M-League.

Santokh Singh on the other hand has never been invited by FAM and is disappointed that with all the experience under his belt, he has never been given a chance to contribute. When asked why he didnt join FAS instead, he simple said that he does not know how to say what people want to hear and do what want him to do. From my short stint of watching the brick wall of the Malaysian defense, Santokh is no push over, he has a mind of his own and is not shy to say what he has too. For this, he is not exactly a crowd favorite. Sad but reality ha!

Then there is Hassan who is not involved with his state FA or FAM but tries to contribute in which ever way he can. But he also says that nobody cares about ex players anyway so he’s not going to cry about it and get on with life.

Based on the respective responses i could see the disappointment in their faces in not being called up to be part of the setup. They are waiting for that call from FAM to give their input, to help in which ever areas the possibly. Im sure they still follow the leagues, the national team and have ideas, thoughts which could contribute heavily to progress. After all, do we have anyone who have been to the levels the fab 4 have?

• It makes me wonder why those who have the powers to decide never consulted those who have tasted success, why do politicians run the show?
• Why aren’t those with the right expertise in the equation?
• Its obviously not working, why aren’t we getting experience in to help out?

Maybe with the World Cup around the corner and with this effort by Maxis to bring back the glory of our footballing past, i hope that this triggers a bright spark within the Malaysian setup to pool our best resources. To strategize our future with inputs form the footballing brains and experience.Hopefully in due course we can start celebrating our football, full stadiums and Malaysians coming together to cheer on our team like we do fanatically with the Manchester United & Liverpool’s.

You can find out more about the superb effort by Maxis or on FB and dont forget the spread the love because everybody needs to know about this! After all its the sport everyone loves! Sports brings us together, the rest only says it does