Can we do something to improve physically?

Malaysians in general have a very strong will, high level of enthusiasm to obtain success in life. When it comes to sports, we always producing talents that are good enough to compete at least at south east asia's level. But the pain truth is, we always struggle when facing a bigger opponents, bigger in term of physical stature/attributes.

In football, the number one and long favourite sports in this country, we have always witness the poor condition of the player's stature. This always highlighted especialy during international games, when Malaysia playing middle eastern sides or Australia. Lack of real heights, especially important position such as goalkeepers, central defenders or at least one of the midfielders.

In the eighties and early nineties, we used to have Goalkeepers with reasonably good height such as Khairul Azman Mohamad (Pahang & Malaysia), Azmi Mahmud (Kedah & Malaysia) & Rashid Hassan (Kuala Lumpur & Malaysia) and some others.

In defence, we can count on K Gunalan (Selangor & Malaysia), Chow Siew Yai (Kuala Lumpur), Ghani Malek (Kuala Lumpur & Malaysia), Azmil Azali (Johor & Malaysia) and others were known for their big physical presence at the back.

Looking at the current national team, or at least if we are going to give a raw accessment on the Super League's pool of players, it is very hard for anybody to single out to any player with a good physical + technical talent package. NO disrespect to the current crop of talent, but for me, the height and size of the football players are very important.

Khairul fahmi che mat, Aidil Zafuan, Safiq rahim, Khyril Muhymeen and a lot more without doubt they are a very good players. But i wish, they could grow taller to become at least a six footer players. Most of the current national team players graduated from Bukit Jalil sports school, and i wish SSBJ could do something with their diet/nutritions program.

Can SSBJ or SSTMI sit together with the ISN to formulate a special program for physical development? As far as i know, a boy in his 13 or 14 years old is in the right phase for physical growth. Can these institutions joint their effort to produce an improve Malaysian footballer with an improve physical stature?

I can suggest 2 ways for us to build a very tall and muscular footballer.

One, Improve diet & nutritions program. Feed the young players with the right set of food. Meals that rich with calcium, magnesium and balance of protein with carbohidrate. Control the consumption of rice (Whether plain rice, fried rice or nasi lemak). The school must emphasize on feeding the likes of yogurt, Cheese, Boiled chicken. The muscles need water and protein to grow.

Two, Improve the physical work out program. Maybe it won't help in term of grow taller, but a player could improve in term of muscular and look competitively more solid.

The only player with good balance of physical attributes and footballing technics is Izzaq Faris Ramlan (Harimau muda). His height and movement with the ball is top class and wish more Malaysian players with such stature could rise and shine for the national team.