National football legend, Datuk Soh Chin Ann has been listed in the FIFA Century Club as the player who represented the national squad the most in international matches.
Photo via kitareporters.com
The 71-year-old is one of four national legends, including Zainal Abidin Hassan, the late Datuk M. Chandran and Datuk Santokh Singh, who were listed by FIFA in its latest update on Tuesday (August 3rd).
FIFA Century Club is exclusive to players who have played in at least 100 international matches.
Chin Ann, who represented Malaysia from 1969 to 1984, was in first place with 195 caps, 10 appearances more than Bader Almotawaa of Kuwait in second place.
Among the other big names on the ‘Top 10’ list are Sergio Ramos of Spain (180, fifth place), Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal (179, sixth) and Gianluigi Buffon of Italy (176, ninth).
Ronaldo remains the only player capable of breaking Chin Ann’s record as he is still actively representing Portugal in the international football arena.
Other Malaysians, Zainal, Chandran and Santokh collected 116, 115 and 100 caps respectively, which is amazing!
With the latest addition, Malaysia is proud to have seven players on the list - Datuk Abdul Shukor Salleh (163), the late Datuk Mokhtar Dahari (138), and the late Datuk R. Arumugam (131) are the first to be listed, based on an update last May.
Although Chin Ann’s overall appearance with the national squad was 252 times as recorded by the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM), only 195 of them were counted as class A competitions.
Photo via The Star
Chin Ann, who wore the national squad captain’s armband from 1975 until retiring in 1984, was happy with the news.
He said, “Thank you, FIFA and FAM for this recognition. I feel quite overwhelmed by the confirmation of this record. Being the player with the most appearances in the world is the highest honor for me,” as reported by Astro AWANI.
What an achievement! Thank you for representing Malaysia, Datuk Soh Chin Ann!
By: Aishah Akashah Ahadiat
