KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 21 — Malaysia’s legendary goalkeeper from the 1960s, Chow Chee Keong, passed away this morning at 7am.

Chow was being treated at the Pusat Perubatan Universiti Malaya (PPUM) when he breathed his last. He was 70. 



In a Facebook post by his son, Adrian Chow, the goalkeeper had "fought hard and long for a long time to stay with us.”

His wife, Christina Kwok, 64, said his cause of death was still undetermined.

"He had developed an infection and it had spread to his organs but we are unsure if that is the cause of death,” she told Malay Mail.

"He had bypass surgery on January 17 and was recovering well, but some time later he started bleeding internally for a week, and doctors could not locate the cause of it.”

"He also had urinary bladder cancer so before he could be treated for that, his blocked arteries had to be dealt with. He took the risk of having the bypass,” she added.

Kwok added that despite his age, Chee Keong remained active while teaching golf.

"He was otherwise healthy, till his last breath he remained a fighter,” she said.  

Chee Keong made his national debut in the football arena when he was 15 years old and played professionally for a decade after.

He played alongside other Malaysian greats like Abdul Ghani Minhat, Robert and Richard Choe, Dali Omar, Ibrahim Mydin, Abdullah Nordin and Syed Ahmad.