By VISHNU VEVAKANANDAN and VINCENT LOH
alltherage@thestar.com.my

Photos by LYSANDRA KOON

Star power: The Rev-kan Your Padang project saw an all-star team, led by former Manchester United player Teddy Sheringham, playing a friendly match with local football fans at Padang Awam Semenyih

IF you’re looking to inspire local footballers at the grassroots level, it’d be hard for you to find anyone better suited than Teddy Sheringham.

He wasn’t just part of Manchester United’s Treble-winning team in 1999 – he made it happen, scoring the equaliser and setting up Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s winner during that epic final against Bayern Munich. He was also famed for his professionalism and footballing intelligence, which enabled him to become the Premier League’s oldest-ever outfield player and goal-scorer.

All that made him the perfect ambassador for the Rev-kan Your Padang project, an initiative by Revive Isotonic, Pepsi and Astro Radio to promote sports and a healthy lifestyle.

The project saw the public nominating and voting for their neighbourhood football fields to get a sponsored makeover, and a friendly match – between football fans from the local community and an all-star team featuring Sheringham, local celebrities and former national players.

The first two fields to get spruced up were Padang Awam Dewan Kenangan in Sungai Petani, Kedah, and Padang MPK 1, Kuantan, Pahang. The finale, however, at Padang Awam Semenyih, Selangor, was where Sheringham made his appearance, alongside former Malaysian footballers K. Sanbagamaran and Hasnizam Uzir.

It was there that Sheringham spoke to the BRATs about playing in the world cup, and what it takes to be a top footballer.

BRATs: Parents in Malaysia generally don’t encourage careers in football and sports in general as they do in England, so what would your advice be for aspiring footballers?
Teddy Sheringham: Just keep practising and keep trying. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. If I were a parent, I’d say to my kid: ‘If you think you’re good at football and can make it work, follow your dreams. You only get one life.

BRATs: We’ve got the World Cup going on now. What was it like for you playing at the World Cup?
TS: My first time in the world cup? It was just all my dreams come true, you know? That’s what you practice for all the time when you’re a kid, and then when you’re playing in the World Cup, you realise all that practice was worthwhile.

BRATs: What do you think Malaysia needs to do to make it to the World Cup?
TS: You need good coaches, and (the young players) need to listen to the coaches. They’re the people that are going to make it work.

BRATs: How did you deal with the pressure back when you were playing?
TS: You just have to try and block out all the fans and all the noise and play a good game. You saw that even today when I missed a couple of shots; but I kept at it until I managed to score. So, you just have to keep going.