Skip to main content

Ex-football stars light up Laureus kick-about


Ex-Japan footballer Hidetoshi Nakata (left) in action during the Laureus All Star Unity Cup friendly match in KL on Tuesday. - BERNAMA
Ex-Japan footballer Hidetoshi Nakata (left) in action during the Laureus All Star Unity Cup friendly match in KL on Tuesday. - BERNAMA

KUALA LUMPUR: Several young local players experienced an unforgettable day when they participated in the Laureus All Stars Unity Cup and got a chance to rub shoulders with some famous former internationals in a football friendly at the Royal Selangor Club.

Among the stars on the pitch on Tuesday were Hidetoshi Nakata of Japan, Dane Michael Laudrup, Steve McManaman of England, Victor Baia of Portugal, Dutchman Ronald de Boer, Portuguese Paulo Ferreira, Spaniard Gaizka Mendieta and Antonios Nikopolidis of Greece.

Also present at the event were Minister of Youth and Sports Khairy Jamaluddin, chairman of Laureus Sport for Good Foundation Edwin Moses, former English football star Bobby Charlton and Yayasan Rakyat 1Malaysia (YR1M) chief executive officer Ung Su Ling.

As a sign of respect to the families and loved ones of the victims of the ill-fated Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, a minute of silence was observed before the kickoff.

In the end, the Laureus Team beat the YR1M team 8-6 in an exciting and closely-contested game.
Meanwhile, the Laureus Sports for Good Foundation and YR1M also jointly announced an innovative partnership to benefit young people in Malaysia through sports.

“Laureus is not just about the awards ceremony. It is also about the year-round work of the Sports for Good Foundation which uses sports to improve the lives of young people around the world,” said Moses.

Laureus and YR1M will also stage a Laureus Sports for Good Summit in Kuala Lumpur later in the year.



by Mervin Menon - The Star

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ex-coach's jail sentence cut to a year

PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal yesterday sentenced former athletics coach C. Ramanathan to 12 months' jail for molesting two junior athletes 19 years ago. A three-man bench led by Datuk Mohd Hishamudin Mohd Yunus unanimously dismissed Ramanathan's appeal against conviction, but varied the jail sentence of four years to a year, which was to run concurrently. Following yesterday's ruling, Ramanathan, 75, a former teacher, walked out a free man as he had served 10 months in Kajang Prison. Convicts get one-third remission for good behaviour while in prison. However, he will lose his pension. Hishamudin, who sat with Datuk Abdul Wahab Patail and Datuk Linton Albert, said the court found no merit to overturn the conviction. "However, in reducing the sentence, we considered Ramanathan's age and the long years the appeal has taken." Deputy public prosecutor Awang Armadajaya Awang Mahmud submitted that then High Court judge Tan Sri Abdull Hamid E...
2 comments
Read more

Badminton: Fans rooting for all-Malaysian semis

Reports: RAJES PAUL KUALA LUMPUR: The home fans will be rooting for an all-Malaysian men’s singles semi-final between Lee Chong Wei and Liew Daren. But Chong Wei is more fancied to advance than Daren in quarter-final matches against Indonesian Simon Santoso and Dane Peter Gade-Christensen respectively at the Putra Stadium in Bukit Jalil today. Yesterday, Chong Wei defeated Vietnamese Nguyen Tien Minh 21-9, 18-21, 21-7 in a second-round match that saw the world number one struggling to adapt to the draught in the stadium in the second game. And Daren continued a fairy tale run in his home Open, blowing away a toothless Hsueh Hsuan-yi of Taiwan 21-14, 21-12. Although Choong Wei had to slog for the win over Tien Minh, the top seed and defending champion felt that he was playing better by the day. “I got off to a good start but found it hard to cope with the draught. I tried to catch up after losing my momentum but that did not happen and I decided to conserve energy for ...
11 comments
Read more

Rajagobal Let Off The Hook

PETALING JAYA, April 24 (Bernama) -- National head coach Datuk K. Rajagobal was let off the hook by the Football Association of Malaysia's (FAM) Disciplinary Committee after finding no evidence that he had violated FAM's Article 88, as claimed. FAM Disciplinary Committee chairman Datuk Taufik Abdul Razak said the committee had decided not to charge Rajagobal after carefully analysing the video of the post-match press conference by the 56-year-old coach. "After listening to the recording of the post-match press conference, we decided to drop the charge against Rajagopal as he did not make such a statement. "Maybe his (Rajagobal) assessment and comments of the match was misconstrued by the media. There was no mention of the FAM policy throughout his comments," said Taufik after emerging from a three-hour Disciplinary Committee meeting at Wisma FAM in Kelana Jaya, here, Wednesday. Rajagobal who does not mince his words when asked to com...
4 comments
Read more