SERDANG, Oct 21 — The Mokhtar Dahari Academy (AMD) will be getting a new director and he is unlikely to be the present National Football Development Programme (NFDP) director, Saad Ichalelene.
A source close to Bernama said the National Sports Council (NSC) has identified the individual to head AMD and the announcement on the development is expected to be made in November.
“Putting Saad as AMD director will appear to be downgrading him. Besides Saad is not in the final list of candidates succeed Lim Teong Kim as head of AMD,” said the source when met at the Empowering NFDP Seminar here today.
The local media had earlier reported Saad, who was the former coach of French football club Paris Saint- Germain (PSG) junior squad, was a front-runner for the post after the NFDP steering committee did not extend Teong Kim’s contract.
The contract of the former junior squad coach of Bayern Munich for 12 years worth RM175,000 a month will be ending at the end of this month.
Meanwhile, Youth and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman in a media conference at the seminar confirmed receiving confirmation on the candidate concerned.
Syed Saddiq said the negotiation process was going on and gave assurance AMD would be getting a new director before the end of this year.
“It will be finalised before 2020. We have the candidate but we need to finalise the process and it is not easy. There several more rounds of negotiation with all stakeholders,” he said.
Teong Kim was appointed NFDP technical director in 2013, and later held the post of AMD director in 2016.
However, his job as technical director was taken over by Saad after a restructuring of NFDP in December 2018, following the failure of Malaysia to qualify for the 2018 AFC U-16 quarter-finals and thereby lost the chance to play in the 2019 U-17 World Cup. — Bernama
