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00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:03 [APPLAUSE]
00:06 [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
00:08 Astro Arena. [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
00:10 [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
00:12 [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
00:14 [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
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00:24 [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
00:53 Hello, how are you, mate?
00:54 Hello, hello.
00:55 [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
00:56 Thank you for being on the show.
00:57 This is a play exclusive.
00:59 So basically, we want to get inside news about you
01:02 being in the Malaysian League for, I think,
01:05 going to be your third year, right?
01:06 Yes.
01:07 So first and foremost, how was it with the Malaysian League?
01:10 It's beautiful.
01:11 I've loved my time here, to be honest.
01:13 It was a place that I always wanted to get to.
01:16 I always had this love for Kuala Lumpur
01:18 because I used to come here when I was younger with my family.
01:21 So it was kind of a dream come true.
01:23 When the opportunity came, a call in,
01:26 I took the call straight away.
01:27 And now my third year, it's been a fantastic ride.
01:32 I can't say when I was 18 that I thought this
01:34 was where the journey would go.
01:37 But I'm very grateful.
01:39 I think in football, just like in life,
01:42 things happen for a reason.
01:44 And I was very, very blessed to be at Tottenham Hotspur
01:48 at 17 years old for three years.
01:50 And you're learning your craft under some of the best players
01:54 in the world.
01:55 While I was there, there was Modric, there was Adebayor,
01:57 there was Gareth Bale.
01:59 And you're seeing these players in and out every day.
02:01 You're seeing their habits.
02:03 You're seeing what they do, how they eat, how they think.
02:05 And I'm really, really grateful.
02:07 At a young age, I learned that.
02:09 And now, down the road, I've spent five or six years
02:13 in England.
02:14 I've played in Italy.
02:15 I've played in Australia.
02:16 I'm now here.
02:17 And I feel at 29 that I'm able to teach things
02:21 to the players underneath, the players that I would have wanted
02:24 guidance when I was 17, 18.
02:27 We have players in our team like Hakimi,
02:29 young stars coming through.
02:31 And I feel like that education that I got from the UK,
02:35 I can help.
02:36 And I'm very, very grateful for that.
02:38 I read a lot of biographies, right?
02:40 A lot of biographies, for instance,
02:43 like Paul Zemoreno books and everything.
02:45 So basically, we all see, in order
02:46 for you to get 90 minutes top professional performance,
02:50 it's all started in the gym, or your attitude,
02:53 and everything, right?
02:54 So when you were with the Spurs, do you
02:56 see like Modric, or even Johnny Dos Santos, Harry Kane,
03:01 like a prominent striker with England,
03:03 their abilities off the field, right?
03:06 How they communicate with you guys in terms
03:08 of the hard work they put in.
03:10 Can you share with us?
03:10 Yeah, for sure.
03:12 Like, for example, you bring Harry Kane up.
03:14 When I was there, Harry Kane was out of favor.
03:18 He was behind me in the first team squad.
03:21 He was a little bit overweight.
03:22 He wasn't playing.
03:24 And he wasn't training.
03:25 And every single day after training,
03:27 I would see him grab a bag of balls.
03:29 And we would go makan.
03:31 We would go eat.
03:32 And he would stay out, and he'd shoot, and he'd shoot,
03:34 and he'd shoot, and he'd shoot, and he'd shoot.
03:36 And we would be watching from the food hall.
03:38 And you see him, and he would go out alone.
03:40 He didn't do so well.
03:41 He came back.
03:42 He went out alone.
03:43 He came back.
03:44 And eventually, he got his chance, took his chance.
03:46 And now, he's all-time leading goal scorer of Tottenham
03:49 Hotspur.
03:50 And that's the kind of things, for me,
03:52 that they shaped my whole life.
03:54 Because I saw this example in front of me that said, OK,
03:58 if, like anybody in any job, you feel down,
04:02 you feel like things aren't going your way,
04:05 if you just concentrate, you do the best you can every day
04:08 consistently, and you stay resilient, you stay confident,
04:12 eventually, the opportunity will come.
04:14 The door will open.
04:16 And that really, really helped mold me
04:18 for the rest of my career.
04:19 So Harry Kane's story, right, is not an overnight success.
04:22 It's not an overnight success.
04:23 Not at all.
04:24 Not at all.
04:25 Crazy.
04:25 Crazy, right?
04:26 It's crazy to hear.
04:28 And I congratulate him a lot still
04:30 whenever he has his successes.
04:32 But it's good for people to know that that's not--
04:36 not everybody is Lionel Messi.
04:38 Not everybody is Cristiano Ronaldo at 16 years old.
04:40 They're incredible.
04:41 But some people, the story is to be consistently knocking
04:46 at the door, knocking at the door.
04:47 And I believe that I've been blessed
04:50 with 10 years professional because of these examples.
04:55 OK, OK.
04:56 Thank you for bringing up that story again, once again.
04:59 But when you were in KL, right, you
05:01 are 29 going towards your third season, right?
05:03 Yes.
05:03 So obviously, deep inside your heart,
05:06 what if you keep on playing regular football,
05:09 look at the past two seasons, you
05:11 are achieving 20-plus appearance in the league itself,
05:15 that 1,800 minutes with under Coach Boyan.
05:18 So if you keep on constantly giving this kind of all
05:22 called prestasi, right, in Malay,
05:24 so basically, we'll see you in the Malaysian jersey.
05:28 Who knows, right?
05:28 Yeah, well, I don't know how I could express it enough,
05:34 well enough, to be honest.
05:35 But for me, it would be a dream come true.
05:38 I learned Chita Chita Saya just to answer this question
05:44 because I wanted it to be in Bahasa.
05:45 I wanted people to know that it is my ambition.
05:48 Just because since I've been here, I've been so welcomed.
05:52 Like you introduced me, you say KL GG.
05:55 And I walk to Mid Valley Mall, and I hear people
05:57 shout it out all the time to me.
05:59 And it's beautiful.
06:00 I'm very grateful for that.
06:02 But more importantly, I've had two beautiful years here.
06:06 We've won a Malaysia Cup.
06:07 We've had the AFC Cup runners-up.
06:10 And I go to the stadium, and I see sometimes 5,000,
06:15 10,000 Malaysians with a smile on their face.
06:18 And that's because of the football that we play.
06:20 These guys work hard every single day.
06:22 They spend their hard-earned money to come watch us play.
06:26 And they come to cheer us, and you put a smile on their face.
06:28 If I could do that in a Malaysian jersey
06:31 for 37 million people, that would be my dream come true.
06:34 Football, basically when a good strike force came in,
06:38 the coach have to make a tough decision.
06:41 And the decision has been made that Safi Sali
06:43 no longer with the team.
06:44 And hence, he hangs up his boot, retire.
06:47 So any good stories about Safi?
06:49 I couldn't say enough good stories about Safi.
06:53 He's a fantastic man and a fantastic player.
06:56 When I first came here, I was blessed
06:59 to have Shukoh Adan, Indra Putra, and Safi Sali in my team.
07:03 So I had three of the best Malaysian players, maybe
07:07 in history, in my team.
07:09 And I was able to learn under them.
07:11 And Safi really, really took me under his wing.
07:14 He showed me.
07:15 He helped guide me.
07:16 And I don't think that I could have the success that I've
07:19 had in these first two years if it wasn't for Safi.
07:21 So I have big, big respect for him.
07:24 And then as a player, no one needs
07:26 to tell you what he's done and what he can do.
07:28 You just have to YouTube Super Safi,
07:31 and you can see 25 minutes of incredible things
07:34 that he's done.
07:35 So I'm sad to see him retire, because obviously I
07:38 love playing with him.
07:39 But such a good man, such a good player.
07:42 And he's had an incredible career.
07:45 And I'm sure that you already know the next part
07:49 of his career with the Pandis, with Astro Arena.
07:51 With Astro Arena.
07:52 The whole Malaysian football.
07:53 So you got the news, right?
07:55 What goes on your mind?
07:57 Well, first of all, I wanted to congratulate Astro,
07:59 because you signed a fantastic Pandu.
08:01 Safi is very knowledgeable, very well-spoken.
08:04 So I was very, very happy.
08:06 And I'm grateful for the whole Malaysian population.
08:09 They're going to watch Astro, watch
08:10 Safi speak about the game, and see the knowledge that he has.
08:15 So for me, I'm very happy for him.
08:18 I'm very happy for Astro to have him.
08:20 And I'm very happy.
08:22 Just Safi, when you watch me play,
08:24 be nice to me in case I make any mistakes.
08:26 But I'm very, very happy.
08:27 And I hope that he's a Pandu for many more years.
08:30 All right, last but not least, any special fans?
08:33 Message to the fans that will turn up
08:36 for every game in home or away throughout this season?
08:42 What I'm going to say is I don't have to motivate you to come.
08:44 I don't have to motivate you to do anything.
08:46 I just want to say thank you.
08:47 I've been here for two years.
08:48 Now my third year.
08:50 And the city boys and girls have always shown incredible support.
08:53 And that's why we have so much love.
08:55 That's why we work hard every day.
08:56 That's why we do our extras.
08:57 You spend your hard-earned money, and you come out and support.
09:00 And we will always fight and die for you on the pitch.
09:02 [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
09:04 I'll see you around, baby.
09:09 Thank you.
09:09 Thank you so much.
09:10 Thank you very much.
09:10 All right.
09:11 [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
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09:28 [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
09:30 [MUSIC PLAYING]
09:33 (explosion)