Golden Era

As we know Mokhtar Dahari was an outstanding football player. His passion and his ability to score goals is the reason why he is irreplaceable in the heart of the football fans until today. What makes him special is he never disappoint his fans even when  the Malaysian football team lost. He was the man of every match he played. 

In those years, Malaysian football was at its best and players like Mokhtar made the game an interesting watch. His mobility and speed, flexibility and the ability to unleash sudden powerful shots with both his feet mesmerized the audience. The crowd would gather at the Merdeka Stadium to watch this spectacular "Number 10" and it was not uncommon to hear the crowd's chants of "Super Mokh" during any match.

Mokhtar and Diego Maradona, the Argentinian football legend once confront each other at Stadium Merdeka in a friendly match between Selangor and Boca Juniors on 1982, four years before Argentina won the World Cup in Mexico.

Mokhtar Dahari (right) was changing souvenir with Diego Maradona (Left) atStadium Merdeka, Kuala Lumpur.

On May 1975, it's Mokhtar against Arsenal. He as well his team dominated the international football club, Arsenal on that day. Yes! We've beaten Arsenal once! The two times champion 1970/71 Arsenal, got the touch of Bertie Mie, Peter Storey, John Radford, Sammy Nelson, George Armstrong, Peter Simpson and more while Malaysia XI, coached by M. Chandran, had the late Mokhtar, Soh Chin Aun, R Arumugam, Santokh Singh, Isa Bakar etc. in the first eleven of the team.

Three minutes before halftime, 'Supermokh' chased Soh Aun's lob, outsprinted bald defender Terry Mancini before sending a thunderous left-foot shot into goal. If we watch carefully, the second goal was a result of a three-man move - R. Arumugam's long goal kick was cheated down by Isa Bakar and Mokhtar played a quick one two with Isa for a well-taken goal.


Here's a video of his performance during those days.

Mokhtar retired in 1986 after winning the Malaysia Cup for Selangor FA. He gave his number 10 jersey to the then Raja Muda Selangor. Mokhtar was awarded “Best Player” in the 1986 Merdeka Cup. Like a resounding encore, Mokhtar came out of retirement in 1987 to play one more season for Selangor FA. A year later, he joined Kwong Yik Bank and won the Selangor League.

References

http://arsenal4u.com/2012/07/info-sejarah-pertemuan-arsenal-vs-malaysia/

http://chedinsphere.blogspot.my/2012/12/boca-juniors-lawan-jemputan-selangor-xi.html