PRESS RELEASE MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT HULU SELANGOR 1 November 2015 Tamil school futsal tournament to honour our forgotten national football legend, N .Thanabalan It was the Malaysia Cup Final 1968. Two arch-rivals during the 1960s, Selangor and Penang, were in the final, and in the end, Selangor triumphed. However, what many of us forgot on that eventful day in 1968 was the scoring prowess of a young man who scored four goals in a Malaysia Cup final and that record has yet to be broken after 47 years! That man is none other than national and Selangor football legend, Thanabalan Nadarajah or better known as N. Thanabalan. Thanabalan first represented the country when he was 17 years old at the 1960 Asian Youth tournament and later graduated to the senior team from 1963 to 1971. Hulu Selangor Member of Parliament and Deputy Minister of Education, YB P. Kamalanathan acknowledged the contribution of Thanabalan recently with a Tamil school futsal tournament in honour of this national football legend. The tournament was held among Tamil schools in Hulu Selangor. Six Tamil schools in Hulu Selangor with more than 80 students participated in this tournament. Thanabalan was also present during the tournament to witness and provide his invaluable advise and coaching tips to the students and accompanying teachers. Thanabalan had earned 107 caps playing for the country and was a nippy and skilful striker that put fear in opponents’ heart. In the 1968 Merdeka tournament that Malaysia won 3–0 in the final against then Asian powerhouse Burma (now known as Myanmar), Thanabalan scored a total of eight goals in six matches. As a national player, Thanabalan had represented Malaysia at the Merdeka Tournament, SEAP Games, Asian Games, Kings Cup in Thailand and Vietnam Cup. He also represented Malaysia in friendly matches against Arsenal FC, Asian All Stars and the Western Australian team. Thanabalan was certainly a national hero. He played alongside legends of that era such as Stanley Gabrielle, Chow Chee Keong, Wong Choon Wah, Abdullah Nordin, Wong Fook Yong, Sardar Khan, Ibrahim Mydin, Namat Abdullah, Shaharuddin Abdullah and M. Chandran.