Malaysia men's national football team

The Malaysia national football team represents Malaysia in international football and is controlled by the Football Association of Malaysia. The national team is recognised by FIFA as the successor of the defunct Malaya national football team which was founded for the 1963 Merdeka Tournament one month before the institution of Malaysia. The team is officially nicknamed Harimau Malaya in reference to the Malayan Tiger. Former player Mokhtar Dahari is one of the top goal scorers in international history. Consisting of the group of 4 teams (the other three being Singapore, Vietnam and Thailand) of Southeast Asia who have each won the AFF Championship at least once, having won it once, Malaysia has however failed to reach wins outside their region other than a bronze won at the Asian Games in 1974. Having participated in the Summer Olympics once and three AFC Asian Cups, the team has never progressed beyond the group stage. Malaysia's biggest opponents on the international stage are its geographical neighbours – Indonesia, Singapore, and Thailand – with past matches produced and in particular, fixtures involving Indonesia being the most heated among these that corresponds to political and social issues, named as 'Nusantara Derby'. A rivalry with Cambodia also had developed, with “The Koupreys” attempting to win against Malaysia in every match they had played since the inception of the AFF Championship. Since the 2020s, Malaysia significantly uses naturalised players of various different nationalities in an attempt to improve the prospects of its national football team. History