London, September 16, 2015 – In a landmark event that proves to be the first of it’s kind in Malaysia and potentially the region, the National Football Development Program of Malaysia (NFDP) officially announced it’s partnership with English Championship Club Queens Park Rangers (QPR), in which QPR are providing a long term, in-depth development program for Malaysia’s ambitious plans to develop football across the nation with an aim of developing the highest level of junior footballers the country has seen.
The event saw NFDP’s Under 13 squad officially launch the partnership with QPR representatives at their home ground of Loftus Road in London.
The event was also attended by former player and current Director of Football, Les Ferdinand and club ambassador, Andy Sinton.
While many EPL clubs send over coaches for short term clinics, QPR has taken a huge step further by creating a special position in Asia for it’s Technical Development Director, former Bayern Munich youth coach and former Malaysian international, Mr. Lim Teong Kim. Mr. Lim has been seconded to the NFDP program since November 2013 and since then he has laid the groundwork for the coaching and training programs for the NFDP. This year has seen his work bringing in fantastic results with his charges creating waves in Europe in a series of tournaments where they have beaten some of the best teams within their age group.
The U13 development squad is the pioneer batch of the NFDP. Last year they toured the United Kingdom and had beaten the likes of Reading, Ipswich, Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea. In the Summer this year, the same squad toured Germany, Austria, Spain and Portugal. They played 24 matches, won 21, drew 2 and only lost 1 match to PSG.
They were victorious against a number of big academies such as Bayern Munich, TSV 1860 Munich, Red Bull Salzburg, Atletico Madrid and FC Sevilla. They capped those achievements by emerging as Champions of The IberCup in Costa Del Sol, Spain. In the final, these Malaysian boys defeated Sporting Lisbon 2-1.
Queens Park Rangers was the first partner of the NFDP prior to its launch last year and has helped to set up 80 district training centers to date. At least 15,000 kids aged 7 to 17 years old are currently being trained by at least 700 youth coaches in these centres.
Queens Park Rangers is dedicated to the longterm success of the NFDP and will add more resources to make it a reality.
As the main stakeholders of the NFDP, The Ministry of Youth and Sports, The Ministry of Education, The National Sports Council and The Football Association of Malaysia would like to take this opportunity to express their greatest appreciation to the Co-Chairmen of QPR FC, Mr. Ruben Emir Gnanalingam and Tan Sri Tony Fernandes for making this partnership a reality.
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