‘Super Mokh’ and ‘Spiderman’ honoured

MALAYSIA’S football legends — the late Datuk Mokhtar Dahari and Datuk R. Arumugam — were among those honoured during the gala dinner organised by the Ex-State & Ex-National Footballers Association of Malaysia recently.

Mokhtar was represented by his daughters — Nur Azera and Nur Arina — while R. Subha and R. Rubha accepted the award on behalf of Arumugam.

Former international and Penang striker, the late Isa Bakar, was also honoured and his state and national teammate Shukor Salleh went on stage to receive the award.

The Ex-State & Ex-National Footballers Association of Malaysia deputy president Datuk M. Kuppan said they were pleased to gather the former national and state players for a get-together.

“We also took the opportunity to honour some of the great players who had contributed to the nation as footballers. It was also good to meet Mokhtar and Arumugam’s children at the programme.

“In fact, the programme was a big success as we managed to gather former internationals from hockey, athletics and also cricket,’’ said Kuppan.

Former international N. Thanabalan was awarded a special award for being a top scorer in the final of the Malaysia Cup competition. Thanabalan scored four goals for Selangor in their convincing 8-1 win over Penang in the 1968 Malaysia Cup final.

Former Malacca player — V. Kalimuthu — who had represented Malaysia in football and hockey was greeted with the biggest applause for being the oldest player in the competition. He is 65 years old.

Former national captain Datuk Soh Chin Aun was recognised as the player with the most international caps. Chin Aun had represented the country 252 times.