WHEN Penang-born football player Mohd Faiz Subri was nominated for the prestigious Fifa Puskas Award for the best goal of 2016, Malaysians all across the globe jumped for joy.
It’s not every day that our national athletes get nominated for awards from international organisations, such as Fifa.
Then again, it’s not every day that we get to see a goal as astounding as Faiz’s from his free-kick in the Malaysian Super League against Pahang in February last year.
Many who witnessed the splendid goal were left flabbergasted, but no one knew that it would be internationally recognised for being nothing less than remarkable.
Needless to say when Faiz was named the winner of the award a few days back, we were all pleasantly surprised albeit being a little overwhelmed by the utter shock of it all.
How could it possibly not come as a shock? It was the first for a Malaysian, heck it was even a first in history for an Asian to bag the award! Naturally, it got many of us excited for the future, as this could very well be a positive turning point for Malaysian football.
However, it was what came after Faiz’s win that got me quite upset.
A number of Netizens criticised the footballer for not wearing a Baju Melayu (the traditional attire of a Malay man) on stage.
Not only that, they even condemned him for not speaking Bahasa Melayu during his acceptance speech. It was all too easy for them to pass judgments even when Faiz had done us proud by bagging the prestigious award.
These people failed to realise that the weather in Zurich, Switzerland, where the ceremony took place, did not allow for thin clothing. It was cold and it would have made more sense to wear a suit, seeing that the temperature had reached as low as -3°C.
These people failed to realise that Fifa only allowed winners to speak in English, Spanish or French, as they were not able to provide interpreters for the award ceremony, which was telecast live around the world.
Just when I thought that the comments on social media were cringe-worthy enough, I came across an article in a news portal.
The writer heavily critiqued Faiz’s lack of command of the English language, and further used it as proof of the less-than-impressive state of English proficiency in Malaysia.
He continued ranting about how Faiz had apparently brought embarrassment to the nation.
He even went as far as labelling Faiz’s speech a “shambling performance”, adding that whatever pride Malaysians must have felt when Faiz was picked as the winner would have been diminished after seeing the footballer on stage.
I do not know of this person but he comes across as a very arrogant, callous person, much like the Netizens who were busy criticising Faiz’s lack of proficiency in English rather than congratulating him for the outstanding performance on the field, which has made us all so proud.
There are a number of other national athletes like Datuk Lee Chong Wei who are not that proficient in English, yet no one says anything about his less-than-fluent English.
There are also a number of other international athletes, such as Lionel Messi, Carlos Tevez and Park Ji-Sung who do not possess a strong grasp of the English language, yet no one bats an eyelash whenever they speak.
You want to know exactly why that is the case?
It is because their achievements speak for themselves. Their astonishing performance on the field and incredible goals and wins are more important than their command of a language that they do not quite require as a gauge of their competence as an athlete.
Faiz has made Malaysia proud by getting nominated and winning the award, which is something no Malaysian has ever done before.
It’s high time that we stopped making disparaging remarks towards the great achievements by fellow countrymen.
It is very demotivating to see people saying hurtful things, especially so when they have done nothing but make Malaysia proud.