Amirizdwan hangs up his boot after 16 years of action

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 11 -- After almost 16 years of action, former national football player Amirizdwan Taj Tajuddin has taken the decision to hang up his boots.

The 34-year-old lanky ex-defender, who is more fondly called 'Panjang’ (the tall one), said the decision to retire was influenced by the offer to him to be assistant coach at Akademi Mokhtar Dahari (AMD), in Kuantan, Pahang on a two-year contract (one year with the option of renewing for another year).

"Actually, according to my original plans, I wanted to to play for another year but I see the trend is that local teams are paying less attention to the seniors and focusing more on young players,” he told Bernama today.

"I also have long wanted to be a coach if no longer playing football, and coincidentally AMD made the offer at the end of last year, and Alhamdulillah (thanks to Allah), I received the offer letter a few days ago,” he said.

Amirizdwan, who has an Asian Football Confederation (AFC) B coaching licence, said he is not setting himself a very high target as assistant coach but aims to learn as much as possible from the professional coaches at AMD.

He will be reporting for duty on Friday (Jan 15).

Amirizdwan took up football actively in 2004 while studying at Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) before representing UiTM FC in the FAM Cup for four seasons from 2008.

In 2012, he joined the Armed Forces team (ATM) and helped them lift the Premier League title the same year, and also the Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah Cup in 2013.

He then went back to his home state Kelantan and helped the state team to emerge runners-up of the FA Cup in 2015, before seeing Kelantan United become League M3 champions in 2019.

At the international level, Amiridzwan made 17 appearances for the national squad Harimau Malaya from 2011- 2015 and scored two goals.

-- BERNAMA