KUALA LUMPUR: In only a few hours time Malaysian football will enter a new era, one that could give fans plenty to cheer about.
Tomorrow (Jan 1), new national senior team head coach Peter Cklamovski and national under-23 head coach Nafuzi Zain will officially begin their duties.
Cklamovski, 46, had previously served as assistant coach for Australia and also coached at a number of clubs in Japan, including FC Tokyo.
The Australian has also worked for roughly 15 years under Ange Postecoglou when the latter guided Australia and Yokohama F Marinos.
Cklamovski's main goals with Harimau Malaya will be to guide them to 2027 Asian Cup qualification and improving the squad's rankings, hopefully towards the top-100.
Nafuzi has plenty of experience guiding age-group teams to success. He helped Kelantan win the President's Cup three times - in 2011 and 2013 as assistant coach and 2015 as head coach.
Nafuzi will be expected to revitalise a national under-23 squad which has lost its edge in recent seasons.
The Asean Under-23 Championship, Asian Under-23 Cup qualifying and the Thailand Sea Games will all be key assignments for Nafuzi and his squad.
Meanwhile, FAM today (Dec 31) announced that they have appointed former Canadian international Rob Friend as the national team's chief executive officer.
Friend, who will begin work next month, comes with strong credentials both as a former player and administrator.
He was on the books as a forward at Moss FC and Molde FK (both Norway), Borussia Monchengladbach, Hertha Berlin, Eintracht Frankfurt and 1860 Munich (Germany) and LA Galaxy (United States) before hanging his boots at the end of 2014.
Among his major accomplishments off the pitch includes being a co-founder of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and helping the league increase its value to US$300 million (RM1.3 billion) in six years.
Friend had also served as co-founder and CEO of CFL sides Pacific FC (2019-2022) and co-founder and president of Vancouver FC (2022-2024).