Malaysian blind football team vows to bounce back
KUALA LUMPUR: Its World Cup hopes may be dashed, but the Malaysian blind football team fully intends to bounce back.
The team’s valiant run at the IBSA Blind Football Asian Championships ended in a 21 defeat to Japan yesterday, ending its hopes of reaching the 2018 World Championships in Spain – the “World Cup” of blind football – and putting its status as a fulltime team in jeopardy.
“We are due for a contract assessment with the Youth and Sports Ministry and we will hopefully get a second chance,” said coach Sunny Shalesh.
“Being able to play in the national team is the only thing these boys want.
“They come from hardship, some of them with no jobs, some without any higher education.”
The team gave out splendid performances over the past week, giving Rio Paralympics silver medallists Iran a run for their money before going down 02, and narrowly losing to South Korea 34.
Still, the team remains grateful for being given the opportunity to play for the country.
“For the longest time growing up, I didn’t think it was possible to play football, let alone become a professional footballer,” said midfielder Asri Arshad, 22.
Striker Sulaiman Nor Azizan, 19, agrees.
“I’m grateful for the opportunity to be able to be on the national team, but it’s more than just a dream, it’s my career – the allowance (from the ministry) is my rice bowl,” he said.
With support from CIMB Foundation, Sunny has been able to elevate the boys from amateur players to being one of the continent’s top teams in just four years.
Most of the players worked as masseurs, telephone operators, or did odd jobs before they were granted national athlete status in February.
“The quality of our team has changed dramatically since we achieved national athlete status,” said Asri.
“How much we can improve depends on whether we continue as a fulltime team or go back to being parttime.
“Our team is so young, we have so much potential.”
The Asian Championships saw China emerge as the champion, fol lowed by Iran, Thailand and South Korea.
All four teams will now compete at the World Championships.
Full replays of all the matches are available at the Eye On The Ball Facebook page ( facebook.com/ EyeOnTheBallFilm).
Eye On The Ball is a multimedia documentary project by the awardwinning R.AGE team and CIMB Foundation, following the Malaysian blind football team’s quest to reach the World Cup.
The project will culminate in a featurelength documentary film by awardwinning filmmaker and R.AGE senior producer Chen Yih Wen. It is slated for release next year.