Seak Poh Leong (born 1952) is a former

Singapore national football team The Singapore national football team (, zh, 新加坡國家足球隊, ta, சிங்கப்பூர் தேசிய கால்பந்து அணி ) represents the Republic of Singapore in the senior men's international foot ...

captain who played for National Football League side Singapore Armed Forces Sports Association and

Singapore FA Singapore FA was a representative team of footballers representing the Football Association of Singapore in domestic competitions run by the Football Association of Malaysia. This is separate from the Singapore national team. As it permits o ...

in the

Malaysia Cup The Malaysia Cup ( ms, Piala Malaysia), 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 nation's ol ...

as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

. He was the national team coach from 1987 to 1988 and had a reputation as a strict disciplinarian.

Coaching career

Singapore national team

Seak began his coaching career as assistant to Singapore national team coach

Trevor Hartley Trevor Hartley (born 16 March 1947) is an English former footballer with West Ham United and Bournemouth & Boscombe Athletic and football manager with AFC Bournemouth and Tottenham Hotspur. Biography Footballing career Trevor Hartley was born ...

in 1979 and coach of Singapore's intermediate and youth teams. Following an 18-month training stint in

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

, Seak became

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

's first professional football coach in August 1984. He was appointed by the

Football Association of Singapore The Football Association of Singapore (FAS) is the governing body responsible for the administration of football in Singapore. Established in 1892 as the Singapore Football Association (SFA), it is the oldest football association in all of A ...

(FAS) as their Soccer Development Director as well as the Director of Coaching in 1985. A year later, he was confirmed as national team coach on a 2-year contract.Two-year deal starting from January 1987. He rejected a 2-year extension following the expiry of his initial deal in favour of focusing on his Director of Coaching role to be actively involved in the long-term development of Singapore football. His services were terminated by the FAS in 1991 due to a lack of funding for the position.

Geylang United

Seak was appointed

Geylang United Geylang International Football Club is a professional football club based in Bedok, Singapore, which plays in the Singapore Premier League, the top division of football in Singapore. The club was founded in 1973 with the purpose of building a s ...

Director of Football A sporting director, or director of sport, is an executive management position in a sports club. The role is well known as a manager role for European football clubs, which are sometime also "sports clubs", offering many types of sports. The spor ...

on 10 October 1997. In a surprise move, he relinquished the position to take over as team manager in early 2002, taking charge of "picking the team and determining how it plays". 2001 Coach of the year

Jang Jung Jang Jung ( ko, 장정) is a South Korean former footballer. He mostly played as a defender. Club career He formerly played with FC Seoul (as then known Lucky-Goldstar Hwangso) in South Korea, Perak FA and Singapore FA in Malaysia and Geyla ...

who had won the

S.League The Singapore Premier League, commonly abbreviated as SPL, officially known as the AIA Singapore Premier League for sponsorship reasons, is a men's professional football league sanctioned by the Football Association of Singapore (FAS), which ...

with Geylang the previous year was reassigned to coaching duties, Jang resumed head coach responsibilities after Seak decided to step down as team manager, reverting to his Director of Football role in August 2002 with 6 matches left and Geylang 3rd in the league standings. Jang's contract was not renewed at the end of the season. With the resignation of

Scott O'Donell Scott O'Donell (born 16 June 1967) is Technical Director of the FAM in January 2022, Scott O'Donell was appointed by the Football Association of Malaysia as their new technical director replacing Ong Kim Swee who tendered his resignation on O ...

and

Darren Stewart Darren Erdley Stewart (born 30 December 1990) is an English mixed martial artist. A professional competitor since 2013, he competed in the Middleweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship and Cage Warriors. Background Stewart was b ...

's rejection of the position, Seak officially took over as Geylang head coach in August 2005. Geylang United appointed a committee of three - Seak (technical advisor),

Lim Tong Hai Lim Tong Hai (born 14 May 1969) was a centre-back for the Singapore national football team from 1989 to 1999. He held various backroom roles at former club Geylang United after retiring from his playing career until his departure in 2012. Cl ...

(team manager) and coach Mike Wong - to manage the squad at the start of the

2009 S.League The 2009 S.League (officially known as the Great-Eastern- Yeo's S.League for sponsorship reasons) was the 14th season since the establishment of the S.League. Singapore Armed Forces FC won their eighth S.League title. Changes to the league inclu ...

season. The committee was abolished in March with the head coach reins handed over solely to Wong, with Lim and Seak retaining their respective roles, following disappointing league results.

References

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Seak, Poh Leong Living people 1952 births Singaporean men's footballers Singapore men's international footballers Singaporean sportspeople of Chinese descent Singapore FA players Singapore national football team managers Singaporean football managers Warriors FC players Geylang International FC managers Singapore Premier League managers Men's association football midfielders