KUALA LUMPUR: E. Elavarasan, who was named the new national Under-23 football team head coach today, will have a similar set-up to national senior coach Kim Pan Gon's.
This means Elavarasan will have a four-man support team. He will be helped by assistant coach Juan Torres Garrido, goalkeeper coach Kris Yong, fitness coach Park Jihyeon and analyst Lee Jeyoon.
Elavarasan, who was under Pan Gon for six months in the national senior team, was made the National Under-23 coach following Australian Brad Maloney's resignation in July.
Elavarasan said he hopes to apply his "first team experience" to the Under-23 team.
He will remain part of Pan Gon's senior setup as an assistant coach as FAM aim for a seamless transition between both teams.
Spaniard Garrido has vast experience in coaching at youth level and was part of the Barcelona setup for four years. He is also responsible for scouting more than 20 players for Spain's national team.
Kris, who is the only other Malaysian in the setup, has served the national team since 2007. Jihyeon and Jeyoon are Koreans.
"This is a tough job because it's different from the senior team. We will follow the principles of the first team, but this squad will be more aggressive in our training sessions," said Elavarasan who last trained an M-League team in Sarawak United in 2021-2022.
His main goal is for Malaysia to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
"I think it's been quite some time, about 42 years since we qualified for the Olympics but please understand that we are ranked 26th in Asia and only three teams will qualify," said Elavarasan.
"When you are ranked 26th, it is a tough job, but we will try our best to push the players to the next level."
Elavarasan will also need to prepare the team for the Asian Cup in September as well as the 2024 Under-23 Asian Cup qualifiers.
FAM technical director Scott O'Donell said: "I've got full confidence in Elavarasan. He is an experienced coach and has worked in various departments. He is on the same page on how they (national senior team) want to play."