Tan Cheng Hoe

Tan Cheng Hoe ( zh, 陈清和) is a Malaysian football manager and former football player who was recently the manager of Thai League 1 club Police Tero. He was the assistant coach for the Malaysia national team during K. Rajagopal and Nelo Vingada era before he was chosen as the head coach of the national team.

Club career

Kedah

As a player, Tan played for Kedah in three Malaysia Cup finals from 1988 to 1990. He lost the 1988 and 1989 finals, but finally won the trophy in 1990.

Tan made an appearance for Malaysia Selection in a match against Aston Villa on 20 May 1991. In September 1991, he was part of Malaysia B team managed by M. Karathu for TAAN Cup, an invitational tournament in Kathmandu Nepal. Malaysia B team won the tournament beating Tiong Bahru of Singapore 2–0.

Managerial career

Early coaching

Tan began his career at Kedah in 2003. Kedah were also keen for Tan Cheng Hoe to stay in football and offered him the role of coach which he held until October 2004.

Malaysia national team

Tan was the assistant coach to K. Rajagopal from 2004 to 2013. Tan worked as an Under 19s coach for Malaysia from December 2004 until October 2009. Tan continued his development as coach for Harimau Muda from October 2007 until October 2009. Under Rajagopal and Tan, Malaysia achieved many good results such as reaching the quarter-finals of 2004 AFC Youth Championship and qualifying for the 2006 AFC Youth Championship. Malaysia also ended their trophy drought in regional football by winning the 2009 SEA Games and 2010 AFF Championship.

Kedah

A break from football lasting 5 years then followed with Tan's next role as manager at second-tier Malaysia Premier League club, Kedah beginning in April 2014. In 2015, he guided Kedah to win the 2015 Malaysia Premier League which also gain promotion to the 2016 Malaysia Super League. Tan was then made the head coach of Football Association of Malaysia, Malaysia after Vingada stepped down following a string of poor results.

In the preparation for the 2018 AFF Championship, Tan had mentioned through an article published by the FOX Sports Asia that Malaysia are underdogs team and hope their country fans will not put their hope too much despite being drawn into a favourable Group A consisting of Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos, adding the favourites in the group would be Vietnam and hope their players will not feel too much pressure as there had been a lot of expectations from the fans. Surprisingly, he managed to lead Malaysia into the final after eliminating the tournament defending title as well five times champions of Thailand in the semi-finals.

This was continued in the finals first leg when the Malaysian team under his led also managed to hold the tournament favourites of Vietnam 2–2 at home in their second meet in the tournament despite the latter had already scoring two goals in the first half. However, in the second leg in Hanoi, his team failed to repeat the same success when the favourites scored a goal in the early first half of 6th minute and began tightening their defence, resulting in a 2–3 aggregate until the end of the match as a result of which Malaysia became the runners-up for the third time.

Tan continued to lead the Malaysian team in the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification after he been reward by the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) to manage the team for another two years until his contract ended in 2020. Although the team under his management able to easily routed Timor-Leste in the first round by 12–2 in aggregate to proceed into the second round, the team only able to defeating Indonesia by 3–2 in an away match before losing two matches against United Arab Emirates in home by 1–2 and against Vietnam by 0–1 in an away match where they meet again for the fourth time through his managerial career despite all the promises Tan has made earlier to the Malaysian fans before the competition started. After the two consecutive defeats, he then led Malaysia to win one of the most famous matches in their history, beating neighbour and Southeast Asian powerhouse Thailand 2–1 to extend its unbeaten streak at home to Thailand, and Indonesia 2–0 also at home to keep maintaining Malaysia's World Cup dream alive.

In terms of personal accolades, Tan has a single Malaysian Manager of the Year award to his name.

On 3 January 2022, Tan has resigned as the head coach of Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) following Malaysia's failure to qualify for the semi-finals of the AFF Cup 2020 in Singapore.

Selangor

On 24 September 2022, Tan Cheng Hoe appointed as Selangor first team head coach. Tan, who took the helm of Selangor in September 2022, has been instrumental in the club's recent successes, notably leading them to runner-up positions in both the 2022 Malaysia Cup and the 2023 Malaysia Super League. Such feats not only elevated the team's standing but also secured their spot in the prestigious AFC Champions League Two for 2024/2025 season group stage. The mutual decision for Cheng Hoe to leave was made smoother with a compensation fee received by Selangor upon his contract termination, highlighting the amicable nature of his departure.

Police Tero

On 29 February 2024, Thai League 1 club Police Tero announced the appointment of Tan as the head coach and designated Worrawoot Srimaka as the technical director. He secured nine points from his games in charge, which were ultimately not enough to keep the team in the league, with the club's relegation confirmed on 13 May 2024.

Managerial statistics

Honours

Manager

;Kedah

* Malaysia Premier League: 2015
* Malaysia Cup: 2016
* Malaysia Charity Shield: 2017

;Malaysia

* AFF Championship runner-up: 2018

;Individual
* FAM Football Awards – Best Coach: 2016, 2023

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tan, Cheng Hoe
1968 births
Living people
Footballers from Kedah
Malaysian sportspeople of Chinese descent
Malaysian men's footballers
Malaysian football managers
Tan Cheng Hoe
Malaysia national football team managers
Kedah Darul Aman F.C. players
Men's association football midfielders