PETALING JAYA: An injury in his teenage years had put a halt in Sam Pakiaraj V. Davaraj’s footballing future, but he was determined to kick down a new door for himself.
And that’s exactly what he did by growing in his role as Perak state football team’s strength and conditioning coach.
And quietly behind the scene, the 41-year-old Sam has tasted several successes with the team at different levels.
Sam’s fitness journey started when he signed up to become a trainer at Celebrity Fitness after he had an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury.
“After that, I came back to my hometown Ipoh and I was working with the Perak Sports Council, starting with the under-age teams.
Sam had played for the Selangor Under-23 squad up until his injury, and before that, he had been part of the Perak Under-19 squad in 2001.
After returning to Ipoh in 2010 and having spent time with the junior teams as their strength and conditioning coach, Sam’s services were promoted to the Super League side, where he has been since 2013.
“When I joined, we built the team for five years. I was with the project team in Perak until we won the Malaysia Cup in 2018 which was a dramatic final,” recalled Sam.
Perak had drawn 3-3 with Terengganu in regulation time, but came out on top by winning 4-1 in penalties to win their eighth Malaysia Cup title in 2018.
Sam, who has multiple coaching certificates from the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), has also spent time working with renowned coaches around the world, including the late Karl Weigang.
“I had the opportunity to work with Karl Weigang for four years. He was a fussy coach and no one ever could work with him but I got the chance to do so and I’m very thankful for it,” said Sam.
“I have also worked with M. Karathu, Mehmet Durakovic, and now with Yusri Che Lah.”
Although he has spent all his time with Perak, Sam had a short stint with Penang in 2021.
“It was just for a year as Penang gave me the opportunity to work with them, and we ended up in the 2022 FA Cup semi-finals against Johor Darul Ta’zim (JDT) but we lost that match,” he said.
Despite the time away, Sam eventually made his way back to Perak. And although the club have had their fair share of financial problems, Sam’s loyalty to his state comes above all else.
“During the team’s good and tough times, I’ve always been there because I’m a Perakian more than anything else.
“More than the victories, more than the matches, more than the game itself – the spirit of being a Perakian feels very different to me. But through those tough times, I was honest with the team and played my role well. I lead by example, especially in the physical aspects of the team,” he said.
When it comes to the team, Sam explained that as the strength and physical coach, he worked more closely with the head coach rather than the players.
“The head coach always works closely with the physical coaches, they must be by the head coach’s side. That way, players don’t get to influence the coaches easily,” he jokingly said.
“I’m the type of coach who will never give any chances because my background is in the fitness industry, I know the physical demands of a football game, and it’s about technique and skill.
“But beyond that, it is all physical, and I work with players on their physical fitness off the field because on it, the head coach is demanding something else, which is their technical abilities.
“So if I work with the players off the pitch and their condition are great during training, the head coach will love you.
“The role of a physical coach is basically to prepare the players for the head coach,” said Sam.
Besides his time with Perak, Sam also runs his own gym called Fitness Lifestyle in Ipoh, which has had its doors open for the past 15 years.
Not just footballers come to see Sam, but players and athletes from different sports seek out his knowledge and services.
“I have good trainers and I have been working with high-performance athletes from different sports such as squash, badminton, and hockey.
“Having my own space allows me to share my knowledge freely and without any restrictions. I can work for myself.
“When I started my fitness journey, I made a lot of mistakes, but no one corrected me. It was not until my time in Celebrity Fitness that I knew how to do things right.
“Football is part of it all, but there is more beyond that and I’m doing what I need to for the community,” he added.
With Sam at the helm of physical fitness, continue to expect solid performance from the players.
