IN the past three weeks, three famed men from the other side of the world, the Western Hemisphere, journeyed to our shores on different missions.
Pele the Brazilian and Maradona the Argentine, hailed by their respective fans as the planet’s greatest ever footballer, set foot on Kuala Lumpur within days of each other.
The other legend that came to town was two-time Academy Award winner, Robert De Niro. If you are a fan of the Godfather movies, imagine yourself bowing, kissing his hand and saying: “Don Corleone, selamat datang.”
Pele, whose insatiable thirst for scoring has led to 1,000 plus goals for country and clubs, turned up at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre to attend a promotional event for the isotonic sports drink, 100Plus.
At the same time, he gave some advice to Malaysia’s top players. Pele said: “The world is out there. You may be very good in your own town or country but when you play outside, you begin to understand and grow better in football.”
Well said, Mr Edson Arantes do Nascimento or, simply, Pele. Hopefully, the coming of Pele and Maradona will inspire Malaysian players to be a “great international”, and not just another “national star” in our Super League, a stark situation underlined by the national team’s pathetic performance in the ongoing Sea Games in Singapore and Malaysia’s dismal world ranking.
While little separates the football skills of Pele and Maradona, there is much contrast in their personalities.
Known as the “Black Pearl”, the modest Pele is not as colourful or as controversial as the vocal Maradona, who has now ventured into the jewellery business.
Maradona, who scored the immortalised “Hand of God” goal at the 1986 World Cup, was in town to enthusiastically lend his touch to the opening of the Boby & Maradona Gold and Diamond showroom at the NU Sentral mall. Well, may God help Maradona in his latest venture in Malaysia.
For those who prefer good food over good football and something Hollywood, the arrival of De Niro at the 56th floor of Menara 3 Petronas for the grand opening of his upscale Japanese-Latin restaurant, Nobu, must be a salivating occasion.
Well, the gourmands in the city should find it hard to refuse if they are offered mouth-watering Nobu dishes like toro tartar with caviar, lobster salad with spicy lemon dressing and premium wagyu goma truffle.
As food for thought, let’s chew on Don Corleone’s famous cinematic line: “I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse.”
Indeed, Malaysia, with its vitality, stability and prosperity, has much to offer to business people, investors, tourists, foreign workers and even boat people.
It has always been like this for the past two decades, and something that we are proud of — Malaysia, a melting pot much favoured and flavoured by all kinds of comers from many nations.
Maradona and De Niro came here to set up shop, just like many others who see this bubbling nation a good place as any to do business.
So do more than 5,000 companies from about 40 countries that have established their operations in this country. And, according to Tourism Malaysia, more than 25 million tourists visited Malaysia in 2013 and spent RM65.4 billion.
The rich, the poor and the famous come here from oceans away. Sure, Malaysia is a happening place.