Dion Cools, a defender of the Malaysia national team, shared how his journey to get to the Malaysia national team began and a reason for opening his heart to play for Harimau Malaya on the FIFA.com website.
Cools made his debut with Malaysia national team in 2021 in FIFA World Cup 2022 Asian Qualifiers round 2 in Dubai, UAE and continues to be the main choice to drive the country’s defence until now.
“I always told my mother and father, ‘Look, it’s not a clear answer for me that Belgium should be my favourite option’. Of course, the ranking difference between Belgium [and Malaysia] has always been a big thing in the sense that Belgium [has] been number one in the world”
“I always felt a love towards Malaysian football, the fans and the whole country.” Cools said on FIFA.com
“A situation came that the Crown Prince of Johor [Tunku Ismail Idris] came with a call and explained that he’s trying to make the national team great again, because they were kind of rock bottom at that moment.”
“It’s not a tough decision in the sense that I felt like I wanted to play for Malaysia. I was quite intrigued by his explanation – he sold me. That’s the moment where I decided, ‘Ok, now I’m going to play Malaysia.'”
The interview captures Cools’ optimism and ambition for the team’s future, emphasising the achievements already unlocked, such as qualifying for the Asian Cup and securing two wins in the qualifiers. The dream of playing in a World Cup especially adds a personal touch to his aspirations.
The defender rose from a corner and met the ball with a Dublin-esque header – “It’s nice to be compared to him!” – to give Malaysia an early lead. Three unanswered goals from the visitors before the hour mark, though, turned the game on its head. “You’re 3-1 [down] thinking, ‘Oh my god, what’s going on in our home stadium in front of the crowd?’”
The fans were soon back on their feet. An own-goal from the away side halved the deficit with just under 20 minutes to go before Cools once again rose highest in the box to plant an excellent header into the bottom-left corner five minutes later. The National Stadium then erupted once more as Faisal Halim fired home a dramatic 93rd-minute winner.
“For me personally, [that’s] one of if not the craziest game of my life, I think it’s one of the better moments in my football career,” he said. “It’s something nice you can tell the kids. It was crazy!”
Cools then led the side out as captain in a less dramatic but equally important victory over Chinese Taipei five days later to make sure of the nation’s best start to a qualifying group since Italia ’90. Malaysia, indeed, sit top of Group C. “Our head coach [Kim Pangon] always aimed to reach 12 points and we’re halfway after two games, so that is always an amazing start,” he said. “The mood is good. Our team has already achieved such amazing things.
“We’ve qualified for the Asian Cup, we won two games in the qualifiers. We can still go higher and higher and maybe even beat the bigger teams. We’re in a good way, we have a good squad with good staff as well who have good ambition.
“There’s still a long road to go, but personally if I were able to play in a World Cup then I would have an amazing satisfaction that I might not have even dreamed of. Seeing guys playing in the World Cup in Qatar… [that] was one of the best World Cups I have seen in my life. Being able to be part of that would be absolutely amazing.”
Credit Photo : Jayden Seah/SNE-Photo
