Chow Chee Keong (26 November 1948 – 21 February 2018) was a

Malaysian Malaysian may refer to: * Something from or related to Malaysia, a country in Southeast Asia * Malaysian Malay, a dialect of Malay language spoken mainly in Malaysia * Malaysian people, people who are identified with the country of Malaysia regard ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

goalkeeper who played in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

Career

His nickname in Hong Kong was ''Asian Steel Gate'' () and ''Crazy Sword'' (). He was a

Malaysian Chinese Malaysian Chinese (; Malay: ''Orang Cina Malaysia''), alternatively Chinese Malaysians, are Malaysian citizens of Han Chinese descent. They form the second largest ethnic group after the Malay majority constituting 22.4% of the Malaysian po ...

. In 1963, he represented the Malaysian in under-20 level as a 13-year-old. Two years later, he joined the

Malaysian national football team The Malaysia national football team () represents Malaysia in international football and is controlled by the Football Association of Malaysia. The national team is recognised by FIFA as the successor of the defunct Malaya national football t ...

as a 15-year-old. At that point, he was the youngest ever Malaysian international player. He was on the playing staff at Bedford Town FC 1967/68. From 1966 to 1970, he was voted by the

Asian Football Confederation The Asian Football Confederation is the governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal in some countries/territories in Asia and Oceania. It has 47 member countries most of which are located in Asia. Australia, formerly in ...

as the best goalkeeper for 5 straight times.AFC President offers condolences on passing of Malaysian legend Chow Chee Keong
, Asian Football Confederation(AFC) In 1968, he came to Hong Kong with a Chinese Malaysian selection side and many Hong Kong clubs took notice of him. Two years later, he joined

Hong Kong Rangers Hong Kong Rangers Football Club (), often abbreviated to Rangers, currently known as Biu Chun Rangers due to sponsorship reasons, is a Hong Kong football club which currently competes in the Hong Kong Premier League. They have won the Hong Kong ...

for three guest matches. Then, he joined Jardine for a salary of HK$2,500 per month which was the Hong Kong record at that time. However, a year later, Jardines withdrew from the

Hong Kong football league system Football (soccer) is the most popular sport in Hong Kong, followed by rugby union. The Hong Kong Football Association (HKFA) is the governing body for football in Hong Kong. History The first football club of Hong Kong is Hong Kong Footbal ...

. So he moved to

South China South China () is a geographical and cultural region that covers the southernmost part of China. Its precise meaning varies with context. A notable feature of South China in comparison to the rest of China is that most of its citizens are not n ...

where his career started to take off. For his three seasons with

, he won many trophies and personal awards. In 1974, he moved to

Tung Sing Tung may refer to: People * Madison Tung, a U.S. Air Force Officer, wrestler, and Rhodes Scholar * Ho-Pin Tung, a dutch race car driver of Chinese descent. * Lola Tung, an actress known for her acting debut on drama series The Summer I Turned Pr ...

. His salary was HKD 7000 per month plus housing. In 1977, he returned to

. A year later, he started to play in both Hong Kong league and the Malaysian league simultaneously. In 1979, he left Hong Kong, but returned in 1981. He spent a short time again with

before moving to

. In 1982, he finally returned to Malaysia and played for

for three years before retiring from football.

Retirement

He became a

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

er after retiring from football. In 1991, he finally earned a coaching license. He first started to teach in Malaysia. In 1995, he moved to a golf club in

Shenzhen Shenzhen (; ; ; ), also historically known as Sham Chun, is a major sub-provincial city and one of the special economic zones of China. The city is located on the east bank of the Pearl River estuary on the central coast of southern province ...

, China. In 1997, he returned to

as a golfing instructor.

Honours

Club

;

* Hong Kong First Division: ::Winners(3): 1971-72, 1973-74, 1977-78 *

Hong Kong Senior Shield The Hong Kong Senior Challenge Shield (), known commonly as the Senior Shield, is the football knockout inter-club competition held in Hong Kong and the fourth oldest football tournament in Asia. Traditionally, only the teams in the Hong Kong ...

::Winners(1): 1971-72 *

Viceroy Cup Hong Kong Viceroy Cup () was a football competition in Hong Kong held by British American Tobacco. Started in 1969, it was the first football competition in Hong Kong which allowed commercial sponsorship. Together with First Division League, FA ...

::Winners(1): 1971-72

International

;Malaysia *

Pestabola Merdeka Merdeka Tournament or Pestabola Merdeka is a friendly football tournament held in Malaysia to commemorate the Independence Day. The competition bears the Malay word for independence. As of 2022, it has been held 40 times, and decreasingly in ...

::Winners(1): 1968

Individual

* AFC Asia's best goalkeeper: 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970AFC President offers condolences on passing of Malaysian legend Chow Chee Keong
, Asian Football Confederation(AFC) * AFC Asian All Stars: 1968 *Between The Sticks-Top 10 Asian & Oceanic goalkeepers of all time (5th place): 2020 *

IFFHS The International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS) is an organisation that chronicles the history and records of association football. It was founded in 1984 by Alfredo Pöge in Leipzig. The IFFHS was based in Abu Dhabi for so ...

Men Best Malaysian Goalkeeper of the Century (1901-2000) *

Men’s All Time Malaysia Dream Team: 2022

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chow, Chee Keong 1948 births 2018 deaths South China AA players Hong Kong Rangers FC players Hong Kong First Division League players Malaysian expatriate footballers Malaysian sportspeople of Chinese descent Malaysian footballers Malaysia international footballers Selangor FA players Southeast Asian Games medalists in football Southeast Asian Games bronze medalists for Malaysia Association football goalkeepers Competitors at the 1969 Southeast Asian Peninsular Games