KUALA LUMPUR, April 26 ― For years, Malaysian politicians have been seeking to capture the country's burgeoning but apathetic youth group aged between 20 and 35, without success.

Umno's Khairy Jamaluddin however, may have snagged the attention of this most precious voter demographic, drawn to his youth, athleticism and open, unvarnished love for English football club Manchester United.

“He is... known as the cool minister. He knows what to say... especially on Twitter and he certainly knows his target audience that he can win,” Aysha Rizuan, a producer with Astro Super Sports, told The Malay Mail Online.

Aysha, who has a following of more than 30,000 fans on Twitter, pointed out that the youth and sports minister knows very well how to tap that support by being “cool” and knowing “what to say”.

The absence of an “athletic” leader among the opposition Pakatan Rakyat (PR) coalition has also boosted Khairy’s standing among not only young football supporters but sports fans in general.

Football fans long disillusioned with the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) have admitted to being bowled over by the Umno Youth chief's bold overtures in standing up to the leadership of the sport’s local governing body.

Support is particularly strong among the younger football followers, who now make up the bulk of those packing the stands in local stadiums for domestic league and national matches.

“The people are supportive of KJ, especially the young ones... we (will) never support FAM,” said Sham  Khalid, one of the leaders of Ultras Malaya, a hardcore supporter group that follows the national team and has a following of more than 6,000 fans nationwide.

Fans told The Malay Mail Online that their fascination with and respect for the Kuwait-born, Oxford-educated Khairy, or KJ as he is fondly called by fans, began over half a decade ago, and long before the 38-year-old was appointed to his current Cabinet post.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has also sought to tap this unknown voter demographic  previously.

Using football as a campaigning platform to woo younger voters in the run up to the 13th general election, Najib had tweeted pictures of himself in a Manchester United kit and even organising a “bros” get-together session to watch a live telecast of a match at his official residence in Putrajaya on October 19, 2011.

But Khairy is far ahead of any other politician in scoring gold among devotees of the beautiful game.

“You see other politicians like Najib, he puts on a Manchester United shirt. But Khairy is known to be athletic... plus you don’t have young leaders in Pakatan who are the same,” added Sham.

Khairy’s influence among football supporters began in 2006, when he and a few others initiated a grassroot football development programme called MyTeam, and made it into a reality television show that culminated in a match against the under-20 national side.

MyTeam lost 1-0 in a hard fought match against the country's professional players, but the team earned respect from a national audience despite consisting of amateur players that had been hastily assembled just months earlier.

This support reflected fans’ deep frustration with FAM and towards the abhorrent quality of local football at the time, noted prominent sports analyst Rizal Hashim, who hosts his own talk show called “Dengan Izin” on Astro Arena.

“MyTeam was not only a platform to raise his profile but also to garner support from the public who had grown frustrated with the national team’s lack of results at international level,” Rizal told The Malay Mail Online, of Khairy.

The MyTeam initiative also helped boost Khairy’s image as a go-getter who was willing to step up to the plate and take proactive measures to rectify that, which has endeared him to the fans.

“He takes action. Compared to other politicians he is passionate and when you’re passionate you will do many things,” said Azmeel Firdaus, the leader of an amateur football team called KL Casuals which follows the capital city football team.

Sham noted that following MyTeam programme, Khairy’s influence grew stronger after he lobbied for the government to fund the Harimau Muda initiative when FAM allegedly refused.

The same Harimau Muda squad, under the guidance of former national football legend, Datuk K. Rajagopal, went on to win a gold medal in the South East Asian (SEA) Games in 2009, the first time in 20 years.

And a year later, two-thirds of the Harimau Muda squad went on to play with the senior national side and clinched the much coveted ASEAN Football Federation Cup in 2010 for the first time since the tournament was introduced in 1998.

Two years later the same foundation was used to create the squad that defended Malaysia’s gold medal in the SEA Games in Jakarta.

This major milestone became the turning point for Malaysian football. It brought back the fans to the empty stadiums.

This did not translate into support for FAM but for Khairy, especially among the more rebellious younger supporters as word spread on social media ― that the youth and sports minister was the man behind everything good about Malaysian football, including the creation of the much anticipated National Football Development Programme (NFDP) launched last month.

The initiative is spearheaded by respected football figures like former national player Lim Teong Kim, who had refused to leave his job as Bayern Munich Football Club’s youth coach allegedly until Khairy stepped in.

Lim was appointed as sports director of the NFDP in August 2013.

Khairy’s contribution to local football has also won him the respect of foes, Azmeel added.

“I have friends who are staunch Pakatan supporters but they all said when it comes to KJ he's ok.”

Khairy’s opposition counterpart, DAP lawmaker for Petaling Jaya Utara Tony Pua admitted that popularity in sports may give political parties a useful advantage.

“But it’s one factor among many,” Pua, who is a fellow Oxford University graduate with the youth and sports minister, told The Malay Mail Online.

But whether or not the tremendous support for Khairy among football fans would translate to votes for Barisan Nasional remains uncertain and one analyst noted that it would require a seismic success in Malaysian football before the country’s youth, majority of whom are pro-opposition, would jump ship.

“I don’t think that is going to happen,” said Samsu Adabi Mamat of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.