Rare moments when Sarawakians score for the Malaysian national football team
May 16, 2019
The recent call-up of Rodney Celvin to the Malaysian National team makes him one of the many Sarawakians earning their place in history.
This is due to the fact that not many Sarawakians get called to represent Malaysia in football.
This is largely because Sarawakians prefer to play for Sarawak FA, and with that the team now underperforming in the Liga Malaysia, the chances to get a call-up to join the national team, nicknamed Harimau Malaya, gets even harder.
It is even more difficult for a Sarawakian to score for the national team because the Sarawakians that are called-up are likely not strikers.
However, in the history of Harimau Malaya, Sarawakians had shined for the Malaysian football team and found the back of the net for the Malaysian football team four times though two players.
Here are the two Sarawakians that managed to score for Malaysia.
Gilbert Cassidy Gaweng
Gilbert had represented Malaysia eight times. He was called-up to the national team from 1998 until 2003. Being a dead ball specialist, Gilbert was dangerous at free kicks and scored his goals though beautiful swing-ins to the goal. His first goal was against Bahrain in the 2001 Merdeka Cup Tournament, and he put another one in the goal when Malaysia was playing against Myanmar during the Group Stage of the 2004 AFC Asian Cup qualification round. Gilbert’s
Joseph Kalang Tie
Joseph, or more preferably called JKT had scored for Harimau Malaya twice making him the only Sarawakian who had scored more than once for the national team in a competitive match to date. Joseph joined the national team in 2009 and made 9 appearances. When the national team was playing a friendly match at Shah Alam Stadium in 2014, Joseph kept his cool twice to score against Cambodia, helping Malaysia win the match 4-2.
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This article is brought to us by our Sports Writers Club resident columnist – Cyril Dason.
