Arsene Wenger likes to say Arsenal don't buy world class players; they make them. And yep, names like Adebayor, Bendtner, Chamakh, Denilson, Eboue, they just roll off the tongue like a 4 year old reciting the alphabet.
But in Malaysia they win things. The Under 21s, fielding mostly Harimau Muda A (SLeague) and Harimau Muda B (Malaysia Premier League) players won the Newspaper Cup held recently in Vietnam.
In their opening game they defeated Laos Under 21 4-2 and they followed that up by beating Sydney by the same score before defeating the Thais 1-0 in the final group game.
In the final they came up against the hosts and Malaysia won it 1-0.
So another trophy to go alongside the AFF Cup 2012 and the SEA Games 2009 and 2011.
I've been saying this for a number of years but ahead of the AFF Cup next month it is worth repeating. Malaysia are building for the future big time and that was evident when I saw them compete in the AFF Under 16 Cup in Jakarta a few years back. Their professionalism was head and shoulders above their ASEAN rivals Indonesia and Singapore and they are reaping the benefits of that hard work and attention to detail.
With Indonesia divided and the Thais looking like they don't give a crap about international football Malaysia will have to find their rivals elsewhere.
While many will be familiar with Gary Robbat from the 2008 squad that played in the Under 16s in Jakarta for me the star of that team was D Saarvindran, a tireless midfielder.
Newspaper Cup 2012 squad
Mohd Farhan Abu Bakar, Mohd Ariff Farhan, D. Saarvindran, Mohd Irfan Fazail, A. Thamil Arasu, Shahrul Saad, Nazirul Naim Che Hashim, Mohd Fandi Othman, Syahrul Azwari Ibrahim, Mohd Raphi Azizan, Syazwan Tajuddin, Ahmad Hazwan Bakri, Mohd Izham Tarmizi (Harimau Muda A)
Mohd Nashriq Yahya, Mohd Firdaus Mohd (Harimau Muda B)
Mohd Azrif Nasrulhaq Badrul Hisham (PKNS)
Adam Nor Azlin (SSBJ)
Muhd Nuridzuan Hassan, D. Kenny Pallraj (Perak)
Syazuan Hazani (ATM)
Irfan Fazail - Google Blog Search
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