Pau Marti Vicente
PETALING JAYA: Malaysian football is in safe hands under the care of Spaniard Pau Marti Vicente.
That was the assurance given by outgoing coach Kim Pan-gon, who announced his resignation in a special press conference held at the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) headquarters in Kelana Jaya yesterday.
Vicente will be the acting head coach of the national team starting today, and his first task will be the Pestabola Merdeka, which will be held during the upcoming FIFA International match calendar between Sept 2 to 10 at the National Stadium, Bukit Jalil.
Vicente will be assisted by E. Elavarasan, and the South Korean crew of Park Bo-bae (assistant coach), Cho Jun-ho (goalkeeper coach), Park Ji-hyeon (fitness coach), Lim Jae-hin and Lee Je-yeon (performance analysts) will stay on.
Pan-gon said he has established the playing philosophy for Malaysia and it was now the turn of Vicente to elevate it.
“Our game is to dominate and be proactive. Most importantly, if we are down 0-1, 0-2, we want to fight back. It is a message for the youth and children to never give up. I wanted our football to be a message to the public,” said Pan-gon.
“That approach was a success and we have a system now. I was the leader then. Pau (Vicente) is the main person behind it. He comes from a high-level environment, thanks to his football background in Barcelona. He deserves to be a head coach.
“If you support him well, he will do something for you. He will continue the Malaysian DNA that we have built in the last three years.”
When asked if he spoke about his decision to the coaches and also the national players, Pan-gon revealed that it was done with the coaches, not the players.
“I spoke to the coaches after the Taiwan game. We spoke at length and it was serious. I cannot reveal the details of the conversation but the coaches were more serious than me in talking about the Malaysian game. They are committed to help.
“The players were not notified. I will start contacting the players. I did not want to disturb them after the qualifiers but these players are owned by the club. But now that I have announced my decision, I will speak to them,” he said.
In the Pestabola Merdeka, Tajikistan ranked no.102 in the world, will return to defend their trophy after winning the competition last year by beating Malaysia 2-0 at the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil.
Malaysia, ranked no.135 are hoping to snatch the trophy from them this time around. The other nations taking part are the Philippines (No. 146) and Lebanon (No. 117).
