Ex-Sabah head coach Shellito passes away
Ken Shellito, the former Chelsea player and manager and later on Sabah head coach, passed away yesterday.
KOTA KINABALU: Ken Shellito, the former Chelsea player and manager and later on Sabah head coach, passed away yesterday. He was 78.
Shellito, who endured health problem since May and was recently hospitalised for lung infection and kidney complications, breathed his last at 7.13am at his residence in Kampung Minintod, Penampang near here yesterday.
He leaves behind wife Jeany and two daughters.
Sabah Football Association (Safa) president Alijus Sipil when approached expressed sadness and grief upon knowing of Shellito’s passing.
He said Shellito had contributed so much to the state when he was the Rhinos head coach back in 1998 and after parting ways, he continued to be involved in football development at grassroots level through the Chelsea FC Soccer School Sabah (KenShellito Soccer School Sabah) he set up in Penampang.
“Safa valued much of the services and contributions Shellito had given to the development of football in Sabah and will never be forgotten.
“I, and on behalf of Safa, would like to send our condolences to the family of Shellito,” he texted yesterday.
Born as Kenneth John Shellito in East Ham, London in 1940, the attacking full back spent his entire playing career at Chelsea, making 123 appearances and scoring two goals following his professional debut in 1959.
However, a serious knee injury, despite several attempts at comeback, forced him into early retirement in 1965.
At international level, Shellito won a single England cap against Czechoslovakia in 1963.
Shellito’s love for the game saw him join the club coaching staff where he would later take charge of its youth academy in 1968 before appointed as Chelsea first team manager in 1977-78 season.
He had also managed Cambridge United before taking up new challenges in Malaysia where he was head coach of Kuala Lumpur (1994), Perak (1995), Sabah (1998) and a short stint with Selangor MPPJ (2003).
(MPPJ went on to win the Malaysia Cup that year beating Sabah 3-0 in the final and the historic win owed much to Shellito who had picked the squad at the start of the campaign but parted ways in mid-season to be replaced by Dollah Salleh).
A Malaysia PR holder, he has also worked as a match analyst for Asian Football Confederation.
Shellito then settled down in the Sabah but continued to be involved in the sport through his football academy.
The funeral will be held at 11am on Saturday at KK Tiong Hua Funeral Parlour, according to a close relative.