Unlike other foreign coaches who have handled the Harimau Malaya before, Kim Pan Gon has never served for a long time as head coach on the international stage. – AFP photo
KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 24): The appointment of Kim Pan Gon as the new Harimau Malaya head coach seems to hint at the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) wanting to hop onto the K-pop bandwagon of Southeast Asian teams hiring coaches from South Korea.
Vietnam and Indonesia have South Korean coaches. So, why not Malaysia too, right?
Whatever the case, the appointment of Pan Gon, who was the Korean Football Association (KFA) national team director from 2018, is a bold gamble indeed, given the fact that it’s been a long time since he took charge of a national squad.
Unlike other foreign coaches who have handled the Harimau Malaya before, Pan Gon has never served for a long time as head coach on the international stage. In fact, his only stint as national team coach was with Hong Kong – from 2009-2010 and 2012-2017.
And it has got this writer wondering whether or not the 52-year-old has what it takes to change the Harimau Malaya’s fortunes since the role of a team director is completely different from that of a head coach.
Local football fans certainly do not want to be served with sub-standard football by a foreign coach-led national team, like what happened during the era of Portuguese coach Nelo Vingada.
That’s why this writer views the appointment of Pan Gon more like a gamble as the country seeks to qualify for the 2023 Asian Cup Finals, especially since Malaysia only have about five months to get ready for the third round of the 2023 Asian Cup Qualifiers in June.
However, there is a way to minimise the risk involved in this gamble if Pan Gon, who will arrive with four of his own assistants, is further assisted by local coaches who have a better knowledge of the national football landscape.
“If the foreign coach does not get the help of local coaches, he faces a very high risk (of failure) as he does not know the players well and, in the short time he is with the team, it will be difficult for him to shape the team to play according to his style,” said former national coach B. Sathianathan.
“Nobody can give an assurance whether he will be a success or failure. He may be good but not suited to the local football system or to our players. But one thing we can be sure of is that foreign coaches will bring new ideas, different training methods and a new dimension,” he added.
Citing the appointment of Vingada in May 2017, the coach, who was known as ‘The Professor’ because of his clever management methods, failed to get Malaysia out of the rut.
Vingada failed to win any of the seven matches he was in charge of, including five in the third round of the 2019 Asian Cup Qualifiers.
That made Vingada the national head coach with the worst-ever record in the last 30 years despite him having a more distinguished coaching background compared to his successor Tan Cheng Hoe.
Although Cheng Hoe had no record of having coached any other national sides, he still managed to breathe new life into the Harimau Malaya’s playing style, besides guiding Malaysia to emerge as runners-up of the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) Cup in 2018.
He also managed to improve the national team’s world ranking from a worst-ever 178 to 153.
The national team’s best achievement under Cheng Hoe came in the 2019 season when they recorded nine wins from 13 outings, including defeating four higher-ranked teams in Tier 1 international friendlies.
All these doubts and comparisons do not mean this writer is questioning the capability of Pan Gon, instead, it is pure excitement at wanting to see what kind of impact he can make or have on the team. After all, he is the first coach from South Korea to handle the Harimau Malaya.
Surely, every Harimau Malaya fan, this writer included, wants to see Pan Gon succeed and help Malaysia end their long wait to qualify for the Asian Cup Finals on merit, especially after over 40 years of failing to do so.
Looks like time will tell if this will turn out to be mission Kim-possible or not!
In the meantime, it is hoped that FAM will take note of the 10 proposals and measures given by the Harimau Malaya independent investigation committee recently to improve on all the weaknesses that have contributed to the team’s dismal performances of late.
Among the suggestions included setting a minimum centralised training period of 14 days for the AFF Cup, preparing a reporting template that is more comprehensive, setting contingency plans to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic and ensuring the Malaysian Football League (MFL) coordinate their league schedule with that of the national team’s.
The independent investigation body also proposed the setting up of a high-performance team comprising technical, science and sports medicine staff, analysts as well as statistics officials as practised by foreign teams to raise the team’s performance level in a more structured and evidence-based manner. – Bernama