Uncle Choo – the cool tale of the first pro football coach in Malaysia

I RECEIVED a pleasant Raya gift two weeks before the recent Aidilfitri celebrations.

Much to my delight, a package containing two copies of a book with the title “Uncle Choo – Singapore’s Greatest Football Coach”, courtesy of the author, arrived safely at my doorstep.

It was written by Reynold Godwin Pereira, and the book is special for a variety of reasons.

Historian Dr Lim Peng Han had alerted me to the launch of the book in Singapore in March but I could not make the trip. So Dr Lim, who has written extensively on the history of Malaysian football, got in touch with Barcelona-based Reynold, who spent six years researching and writing the book. The 59-year old lawyer was happy to oblige.

Malaysia and Singapore are inextricably linked in football. Singapore was after all part of Malaya.

And a major player who helped plant Malaysia’s footballing seeds in the post-Merdeka days was Seng Quee, affectionately known as Uncle Choo.

Uncle Choo may be a distant memory but the book is published to preserve his legacy, 40 years after his demise at the age of 68, at his home in Wolskel Road.

His in-depth knowledge of world football was a great influence to the region, particularly Indonesia, Malaysia and of course his homeland, Singapore.

Uncle Choo was the first foreign coach ever appointed by the Indonesia national team, albeit in an honorary position.

And he chose Malaya to make the baby steps as a professional coach.

In January 1958, Seng Quee was appointed coach of Malaya by the FA of Malaya (FAM) president, Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra.

In return, Uncle Choo earned a handsome monthly salary of $700 plus free accommodation and travelling expenses. Such was Tunku’s implicit trust in Seng Quee that he personally arranged for a six-month coaching course in England in 1961.

The London Sunday Times made the following remark “Choo Seng Quee is a large plump chuckling Malayan who knows more about British football than most British footballers. He’s wonderfully well informed on world football, can demonstrate a Stanley Matthews feint, with agility remarkable in one so large and firmly believes in relaxation”.

His stint ended in June 1961 and before he returned to Malaya, Seng Quee was awarded two trophies to be given to FAM to hold two local tournaments – the Burnley Cup for the Under-19s and the Sheffield United trophy for the Under-15s.

The Burnley Cup – where the cream of the crop earned their stripes – stood the test of time and was renamed the Razak Cup in 1973, after Tun Abdul Razak Hussein. Seng Quee played an integral role in the development of youth football in Malaya, running coaching clinics while at the same time handling major assignments for the senior team.

He was at the helm of one of Malaya’s most illustrious teams that bagged the gold in the 1961 SEAP Games and the bronze in the Asian Games in Jakarta in 1962.

That generation boasted Ungku Ismail Abdullah, Sexton Lourdes, Yee Seng Choy, Abdullah Nordin, Boey Cheong Liam, Ahmad Nazari Zohri Min, Kamaruddin Ahmad, Foo Fook Chuan, Edwin Dutton, Inderjit Singh, Richard Choe, Ibrahim Mydin, Abdul Ghani Minhat, Stanley Gabrielle, Arthur Koh, Roslan Buang, Robert Choe, Mahat Ambu and M. Govindarajoo.

In 1963, when his contract with FAM ended, Choo was officially appointed as the national schools coach for Malaya, a position specially created by the Tunku.

One of Seng Quee’s training methods was shared by the late defender Sardar Khan to his younger brother, Datuk Dell Akbar Khan Hyder Khan.

“My brother told me Seng Quee asked each one of the players to hit the crossbar from a certain distance after training. No one gets home until all the players managed to do so. It was his way of polishing the players’ technique,” said Dell.

The book is available on hardcover, paperback and e-book and can be purchased at https://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/13203#t=aboutBook and Kinokuniya Malaysia.

Enjoy the book to understand the journey taken by the founding fathers of Malaysian football.

Thank you Rey for preserving a legacy.