Malek bin Awab is a

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

an former

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who played as a midfielder in the 1980s and 1990s. Malek Awab also once held the record for the most number of international caps for his country, Singapore (121 caps).

Football career

Club

Malek started his football career with Farrer Park United as a right winger. Malek played for the

Kuala Lumpur FA Kuala Lumpur City Football Club, known simply as KL City FC, is a Malaysian professional association football, football club based in Kuala Lumpur. The club competes in the Malaysia Super League, the top level of Football in Malaysia, Malaysia ...

side that won the

Malaysia Cup The Malaysia Cup (), formerly known as Malaya Cup, is an annual football tournament in Malaysia, held at the end of the calendar year. The cup was first held in 1921. Despite its prestige and popularity as the country's oldest cup tournament, i ...

in 1988. After playing for Kuala Lumpur FA, Malek joined

PDRM FA Polis DiRaja Malaysia Football Club or Royal Malaysian Police Football Club (), well known as PDRM FC (After ''PDRM FC Sdn Bhd'' established in 2020, formerly known as ''PDRM FA''), is a Malaysian professional association football, football clu ...

for a year. In 1998, Malek joined

Woodlands Wellington FC Woodlands Wellington Football Club was a professional association football, football club based in Woodlands, Singapore, Woodlands, Singapore which played in the S.League, the top division of football in Singapore. The club took part in S.League ...

as a sweeper.

International

Malek was spotted by national coach Jita Singh and brought on to the national team on 13 October 1980. Malek played in his first international game at

King's Cup King's Cup (incl. translations), may refer to: Sports Football * Copa del Rey, Spanish for "King's Cup," the main national knockout tournament in men's football * King's Cup (Bahrain), the premier national knockout football tournament * King's ...

, Bangkok, 1980. Representing the Lions in midfield, Malek was often seen running tirelessly for 90 minutes of the game, closing down on opposition players and making cutting runs into the opponents half. Together with

Fandi Ahmad Fandi bin Ahmad (born 29 May 1962) is a Singaporean professional Manager (association football), football manager/head coach and former Association football, player. During his professional career, he played mainly as a Forward (association fo ...

Abbas Saad Abbas Saad (; born 1 December 1967) is a soccer manager and former player. Born in Lebanon, Saad played for the Australia national team. Club career Saad began his playing career in 1985 at Sydney City, before moving to Sydney Olympic. In ...

and V. Sundramoorthy, they formed the backbone of the Singapore team that won the

in 1994. Malek played his last international match during the 1996

Tiger Cup The ASEAN Championship (formerly known as the AFF Championship or AFF Cup), currently known as the ASEAN Hyundai Cup for sponsorship reasons, is the biennial football tournament organized by the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) for men's natio ...

Coaching

After retirement from professional football, Malek coaches children at the Kaki Bukit Sports Club.

Career

Outside of football, Malek is a sales manager for Pacific Sports Private Limited since 1980s.

Personal life

Malek is married to seamstress Sharifah Nazihah.

Honours

Singapore Lions *

Malaysia Premier League The Malaysia Premier League () was the second-tier professional football league in Malaysia. It replaced the Liga Perdana 2 in the Malaysian football league system. The Malaysia Premier League was contested by 12 clubs. The season usually ra ...

: 1994 *

: 1980, 1994

References

External links

Catching up with Malek AwabJPT Talk - Featuring Malek Awab
1961 births Living people Singaporean men's footballers Singapore men's international footballers FIFA Men's Century Club Kuala Lumpur City F.C. players Singapore FA players Geylang International FC players 1984 AFC Asian Cup players Footballers at the 1990 Asian Games Men's association football midfielders SEA Games silver medalists for Singapore SEA Games bronze medalists for Singapore SEA Games medalists in football Competitors at the 1981 SEA Games Asian Games competitors for Singapore {{Singapore-footy-bio-stub