First of all, we have to congratulate Thailand for clinching their fourth ASEAN titles. So how did the Thais fare? They captured the Cup with style, convincingly.
Undoubtedly, Thailand came into this tournament as one of hot favorites to lift the Southeast Asia’s most prestigious Cup. With an average age of just 24yrs old, this team was built from the 2014 Asian Games fourth placing squad beating the likes of Indonesia, China and Jordan along the way.
And when you thought this new Golden Generation of Thailand’s just emerged overnight with a handful of lucky discoveries of certain new talents from their domestic League, the statistic proved us wrong. A quick check on the Thailand U23 team which brought home the 2013 SEA Games Gold medal, 11 players from that U23 winning team, lifted the AFF Suzuki Cup 2014 at Bukit Jalil Stadium on Saturday night. This is football developing done in the right way.
The Good-looking One
Football is particularly exciting for the fans, especially for the female fans, if you are a good-looking one apart from the footballing skills which you might already have. In this tournament, Suphanburi FC’s Swiss-Thai Midfielder, Charyl Yannis Chappuis walked away with the Most Good-looking Player Award easily.
The 22yrs old Midfielder netted 4 goals in the tournament which most of them scored in the most crucial moments and greatly contributed to the Thais’ triumph. Well, not bad for a FIFA U17 World Cup winner with Switzerland, the decision to give up his Swiss citizenship in exchange for International football has certainly paid off. For then a 20yrs old that was struggling to clock playing time at the country’s highest level, following his Thai mum back to Asia was certainly a blessing in disguise.
The good-looking player didn’t look back. In fact, he went on and made his mark in this tournament perfectly. A quick check on this gorgeous’ instagram, it has already surpassed 500k followers! Alright, I am one of them!
MVP Messi-J
Thank God that football is probably the only sport in this world where you do not need to have a certain criteria especially physique to engage in. Or rather let’s put it this way, after seeing how Barcelona’s Messi plays, our impression of footballer needs to be like a Zlatan Ibrahimovic is not longer a discussion topic anymore! The newly crowned ASEAN Champion has one such player. He is the Most Valuable Player Award winner in this edition and his name is Chanathip Songkrasin, also popularly known as Messi-J.
This 1.58m tall Midfielder (still 11cm shorter than the real Messi) practically destroyed Singapore, Myanmar, Philippines and Malaysia with his low gravity dribbling. His exceptional amazing strength of holding off opponents easily twice his size has given Thailand multiple options of penetrative attack from the middle of the park!
Think about it, it has also been awhile since a player last emerged from this region who could single-handedly inspired the team to victory with his individual flair. I am seeing that in Chanathip. Despite accepted and underwent various trials with top J.League clubs, this young man is definitely set for big things ahead. At an age of just 21yrs old, the future’s bright for Messi. I mean Messi-J.
The Man behind the Victory
What about Coach Kiatisuk Senamuang? What about the AFF Suzuki Cup 2014 victory which made him the first player and coach ever to win an ASEAN football championship? There are just too many things to write about his forever-smiley Thailand’s ‘Zico’! I enjoy listening to him during the post conference as this soft-spoken coach never fails to impress us with his humble attitude and comment. Basically, he has done everything he needed to ensure this Golden Generation of Thailand’s put on their best performance to bring back the Cup and level it with Singapore at 4 times Championship! However, there is still one thing that we hope he could have done, but he didn’t.
After the major victory, the legendary Kiatisuk didn’t do his somersault!
More photos of Thailand & AFF Suzuki Cup, Click Here.
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