Cardiff automatic promotion spot got nick away by Norwich. They have to fight through play-off. =/

Oops, my bad.

kinda agree with you

This post has been edited by falick_ballack: May 3 2011, 06:07 PM

When I first heard of him, I read a couple of articles in local English papers (online) giving him a short mention from youth coaches in some of the teams he was affiliated with, so I thought he was at least lower league material.

Vaguely recall him saying that he would not mind playing in the English lower leagues, as long as he got to play in England. Guess that didn't necessarily pan out.

While you guys might be panning him a bit, remember that at the very least, he had the initiative to go and trial with teams abroad. Very few Malaysian players have such initiative.

Or opportunity

There was that interview with the Malaysian dude coaching Bayern Munchen's youth who mentioned how the guys FAM sent were lackadaisical and simply wanted out when they stayed over at his place in Germany. He commented about how many of them simply had too little drive.

Guys like Liew Kim Tu break the mould of course.

My point is, people like FAM do try and another bother is that a lot of aspiring footballers I know can't think beyond England (which have strict policies on youths from abroad under 16). Tell them that they'll have a better chance with the highly open Belgian, Dutch or German systems and they simply shrug. Drive and initiatitive, sorely lacking.

But this is a general Malaysian problem, not isolated to football.

P.S. There are actually lower league teams in the Netherlands that have handed out trials to kids who send in videos etc. The average middle class kid in Malaysia, if driven enough, can really afford to try these out.

This post has been edited by minority: May 3 2011, 07:43 PM

agree more on opportunity, it need alot of money just to go trial there n stay there for quite some time. u cant do it based on talent alone. if not alot of Brazilians already do that.

and i think...in my opinion we are still early to break into EPL team...d quality is hugely different.

but step by step, i see alot of good improvement in malaysian football, im quiet happy with that. and kudos to nicholas for his effort, titus james and few others. hope all d newcomers with get the exposure as well. long live malaysian football!

Brazil is different. Kids there grow up supporting their clubs heavily and trial there. They can try to go to Europe, but the thing is they don't want to, because staying local is better when young.

The average Malaysian kid is more well off than a Brazilian kid as well.

If our kids work hard enough, at least a few would be able to go to Europe and try out. But the fact is we barely have one! That's more down to a lack of drive.

i still believe cost is a big factor as well. its simply 2 expensive.

another thing, how many parents in msia support their sons to be a footballer? according to them, the future is bleak and they rather their sons study and be a doc,engineer or a lawyer instead.

definitely agree with you, but i hope things will change as, KBS stated that 2011/2012 is the start of sporting industry

Thats why minority mentioned middle class above. Sure lower class family won't be able to afford even an air ticket to Switz, Netherlands, Belgian or any other Europe countries but I am sure middle class ones can do it. accommodation and foods may be provided by the club too. I know a family who sent her daughter all over the world to compete in violin and piano competition and they were at least RM6000 per trip and her dad is just an english tuition teacher. minority is right, if you have the drive, together with opportunity... you may get the offers for trial from lower league teams if they were impressed by the video footage and cv you sent to them.

my dad fucuk me in the backside to even think about that.

You are referring to Lim Teong Kim. It was disappointing to find out that not many Malaysians knew what he achieved abroad until the recent youth tournament here. I remember reading about the comments you've posted.

I'm not sure that the hesitancy to be attached to an English club is purely down to a lack of drive. Could also be a lack of awareness. Kids these days grow up heavily exposed to English football and English football alone. Heavy marketing in this region has resulted in the perception that the Premiership is the biggest and most lucrative league in the world. Well we know at the very least that the latter isn't necessarily true given lower taxes elsewhere. Perhaps not many are aware that youth academies at clubs like Ajax and Bayern Munich are world renowned, on par and even better than their English counterparts. Also, English teams are more active in the region when it comes to scouring for talent. Clubs like Spurs, Hull, and West Ham are actively sourcing for young talent in the East.

Not saying it's the only reason, but it is part of it. I find it hard to believe there isn't at least one other Titus around. I do concede however that for one Titus, there are many more Akmal Rizal's who gets homesick and misses the food.

Indeed, not that I'm isolating a single cause to rule them all. Costs and the general lack of knowledge of academies in Europe do form a considerable barrier, but it's just as you say, why are there so few Malaysians even trying it out? Obviously, we won't achieve the thousands of players there are in European academies, but at least you'd want to see a few players every year having a go.

Another factor would definitely be what spikyz said of course, kids here are pushed to be doctors, engineers or lawyers (nowadays accountants and actuaries as well).

But the problem with drive means that we don't quite have enough people willing to sacrifice all and take risks. We are a fundamentally low-risk society as it were. One would think that a high drive would foster a high awareness. The initiative-takers of the world network and get info and ask questions. If you still remain limited in your awareness of a subject of which information is readily available then it comes down to your drive to uncover the details.

In truth, even if you don't aim for the renown academies, you still have non-top-tier teams who do look for players abroad. The English have rules for players under 16 (cannot live more than 90 minutes from the club), but Germany and the Netherlands have the most open clubs of all. That's why the first Japanese/Koreans/Singaporeans/Iranians/Malaysians all went there and it's down to the kids (and their families) to drive towards those goals.

Things might change though. The football mad and middle class guys of this generation might know more about these things and be more willing to send their kids around to the right places (like liez's example of violin competitions). Even Safee Sali's move to Indonesia should be lauded for a spirit of adventure to chase a higher level of football.

i wish u r my father.

it was a game of numbers also. every year there are around 1000 brazilian kids venture abroad to sell their talent at a ridiculously young age. around 700 return home within a year becoming worse player than they set out to be. Possebom of manchester united was one of them.. from these sacrifices that you get the da silvas, falcao, deco and all...

for us to hope to be succesfull with by just sending around 10 players, we need to be exceptionally efficiant with our support to the players. if we expect to produce a gem by just sending young man to fend for themselve in faraway land without any support system at all, then we need to send thousands of them to produce one gem..

these kid primary skill are just physical ability that not really helpful as lifestyle tool as oppose to intelectual intelligence of overseas students.

i think the Harimau Muda project in slovakia is a good innovation to expose our players to overseas football with proper group support instead of just sending them one by one which untill today not fruitful at all..

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Added on May 3, 2011, 11:30 pmi judge the success of players that we send abroad by how they effect the national team or our local football industry as a whole. Akmal Rizal may not reach the expectation that we hope of him, but at least he contributed to the national team and we get to actually see him play in the league..

titus james for me just succesfully prove to me that Malaysian can become french if they want to...and thats about it.. where is the football?

This post has been edited by aressandro10: May 3 2011, 11:30 PM

Actually, Akmal wanted to stay on with Strasbourg, but IINM, he couldn't because of the non-EU rules. He went to a 3rd division club and then an amateur club (again IINM) and then decided instead of amateur level, might as well I go back home and play in the M-Leauge. For that, I don't think he should be blamed, because he did try for at least 1.5 years.

The ones you're referring to on homesick and miss food are Fazli Shaari and one other dude who played for Selangor. That one really pissed me off coz both these fellas did not last more than a month.

Well that's the difference. I'm talking about having the drive and ambition to succeed overseas. Titus may not be the most gifted but he's decided to try and make it in a bigger league. This is what I was discussion the minority - local youngsters wanting to be attached to foreign clubs, especially English but not having the desire to work their way up from smaller clubs or leagues. Titus may not be making headlines but he isn't giving up on making a name there.

I agree with both Duke Red (drive) and Minority (opportunities). It's all about the drive and passion to succeed. In order to be good in football, we have to commit to better ourselves and of course in the meantime of practicing hard, we have to practice smart too. This is where influences (opportunities) around the footballers come to play.

nope, second place snatched by Norwich