Teong Kim remains an asset to Malaysian football

I FEEL compelled to write about the controversy over the recent sacking of Lim Teong Kim (pic) as the Malaysian Under-16 football team coach.

The sacking came within hours after the team’s 0-2 defeat to Japan (in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U-16 Championship).

They did not qualify for the next round (and did not qualify for next year’s Under-17 World Cup in Peru).

I won’t comment on the tournament itself, although I think the young Malaysians acquitted themselves very well, given the circumstances, almost reaching the next round.

As Malaysia’s ambassador to Germany (1999-2003), I got to know Teong Kim well. He was living in Munich when I first met him in 1999, soon after arriving in Germany.

Teong Kim was closely associated with the Munich-Malaysian Society. He was introduced to me as the coach of the Bayern Munich youth team. Imagine my surprise that a Malaysian could become the coach of the youth team of a leading German professional football club! I had, of course, known about Teong Kim’s exploits in Malaysian football. I had the pleasure of watching Teong Kimwhen he was a national player.

To me, Teong Kim was a Malaysian football hero – in the mould of Ghani Minhat, Soh Chin Aun, Mokhtar Dahari, Santokh Singh, and other Malaysian greats. I was delighted when I read that Teong Kim became a successful professional footballer in Germany, playing for Hertha Berlin – now in the Bundesliga. If I’m not mistaken, he was the only Malaysian to have a successful professional career in Germany.

I was delighted and felt a sense of pride when I discovered that Teong Kim had become a successful coach for the youth team of the biggest professional football club in Germany!

In fact, I remember introducing Teong Kim to our then Prime Minister, Tun Dr Mahathir (now again our Prime Minister!), during his official visit to Germany in 2002. Tun Dr Mahathir was also taken aback that a Malaysian could become the coach of the Bayern Munich youth team.

After my retirement from the Malaysian Foreign Service, I went back to Germany often. I met Teong Kim several times. He too came home to Malaysia often and never failed to visit me.

Several years ago, he told me that he was asked to consider coming home to Malaysia to coach. He told me that he would only consider coaching our youth side, for he felt that youth development held the key to Malaysia’s revival as a footballing nation.

He felt that we needed to rebuild our football at the youth level if we wanted to reach the heights that our national team once reached.

When I heard that he was to take charge of the Mokhtar Dahari Football Academy, then being built in Gambang, Pahang, to train our youth, I was delighted.

I was most encouraged that a coach of one of the world’s most successful youth clubs would invest his future in our youth. I felt that Teong Kim could do much by transforming our young players into world beaters and that would have an impact, hopefully, on our national side.

Teong Kim had successfully trained players like Thomas Muller and Emre Can, and a host of others for club and country, so to have him train our young players would be ideal. Here was a man whose professional career had taken him to Germany – first as a player, then as a coach for 12 years for one of Europe’s top sides.

I know for a fact that Teong Kim is, first and foremost, a true Malaysian patriot – that is why he decided to forgo a lucrative career in Germany. He did so because he had the opportunity to take Malaysian football back to the heights we once reached.

It’s my hope that he would get a fair hearing from our new Youth and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman. It is my firm belief that Teong Kim, knowing his passion and commitment, can put Malaysian football on the right path.

It is also my belief that the FAM’s (Football Association of Malaysia) decision to dismiss Teong Kim was a rash one.

What makes it worse, one suspects, is that Malaysian football will suffer and our hopes of one day emerging as one of the region’s best teams will be dashed as well.

Finally, I can’t imagine that it is money alone which drew Teong Kim home, knowing the man. Coaching in a top professional club in Germany would be far more lucrative for him.

It’s a grave injustice to the man if the Malaysian public is left with the impression that Teong Kim is “only here for the money”.

Datuk Abdul Kadir Bin Mohd Deen

Malaysian Ambassador to Germany, 1999-2003.