How A Malaysian Coach Had A Hand In Developing Thomas Muller Into A World Cup Star
Lim Teong Kim, former Malaysian footballer and current assistant coach of Bayern Munich Under-19. Image via The Star.
As 20-year old Thomas Muller ran riot in Germany’s matches against England and Argentina at the World Cup, not many know that it was a Malaysian who had a hand in his rapid rise to stardom.
Enter Lim Teong Kim, former Malaysian international and currently an assistant coach at Bayern Munich’s Under-19 team. Lim was Malaysia’s first footballer to ply his trade in Europe for Hertha Berlin in 1987.
During his playing days, Lim also helped Malaysia to winning the SEA Games gold in 1989 (Malaysia then took another 20 years to win it again, in 2009).
Lim’s take on Thomas Muller and Holger Badstuber, another graduate of Bayern’s youth system that saw success in South Africa:
“Muller was not as gifted as some of his teammates in the youth teams but he made it big because of his dedication to training and matches. This is the same case with Badstuber.”
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Earlier this year, the New Straits Times had also done an interview with Lim Teong Kim, picking his thoughts on developing Malaysian football in general. Worth a read, the opinions of a man who’s career is at the top of the footballing pyramid.
Here’s another one from the Star, back in 2007 but sadly, nothing much has changed in Malaysian football.
When football is still the same here after so many years, how can we expect to see any changes to the game or standard? Why criticise the present batch of players and keep banging them on their heads for failures when no one cares for the development of the game?
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