KUCHING: Saturday morning Malaysians woke up to news of the passing of national football legend M. Chandran.
The former national skipper passed away at the age of 77 in his Ampang Jaya home in Kuala Lumpur at 7.30am yesterday.
Newspapers highlight the glory of the country’s past athletes once a while.
Besides recognising their achievements they also usually evoke a certain nostalgia for a foregone era when these former champions thrived.
Even so, the outpouring of tributes for M. Chandran in online news portals and social media since yesterday was quite unusual.
Not only did the volume seem louder. Quite a few veteran journalists even felt obliged to write personal recollections of the player who donned Malaysian colours for 13 long years.
Chandran Muthuveeran was born to humble origins in Sungai Siput, Perak.
His father was a train driver with Malayan Railways.
He was attracted to Selangor for work and football, first playing for Selangor Indian Association.
His obvious talent was spotted very early and he quickly found success in the Selangor and national team.
He was only 19 when he made it to the national team which won the SEAP Games gold and Merdeka tournament in 1961.
He retired from international football in 1974 and went on to serve as coach and administrator in Selangor and national football.
The question of who is Malaysia’s greatest football player is always open for debate. But it is quite safe to say that M. Chandran belongs to any shortlist of the greatest of the great.
Based on personal achievements and impact on the game in Malaysia, the few in that exclusive list has to include M. Chandran, Soh Chin Aun, Mokhtar Dahari and Chow Chee Keong.
M. Chandran’s exploits in the Malaysia Cup and the Merdeka Cup, the most prestigious regional tournament in the 1960s and 1970s, are second to none.
The central defender always stood as the last man in Selangor and Malaysia’s defence leading to multiple titles during the glory years of the country’s football history.
His legendary composure and leadership led to his appointment as national team captain in the second half of his illustrious career.
The crowning achievement of that era was when Malaysia qualified and competed in the 1972 Olympic Games.
Some critics of Malaysian football today point to the multi-racial composition of the highly successful national teams of the 1960s and 1970s.
They ask: Why have all the Chinese and Indian players disappeared from the national team today?
Perhaps that is the compelling reason why many fans and commentators turned nostalgic yesterday.
For there was a time when the Malaysian football team comprised Malays, Chinese, Indians and Eurasians. Strikers like Mokhtar Dahari, Shaharuddin Abdullah, Isa Bakar and James Wong were household names.
As were mid-field general Wong Choon Wah and goalkeeper R. Arumugam. And at the heart of the Malaysian defence stood Soh Chin Aun and M. Chandran.