Fritz signs on with Malaysia

Fritz Schmid (right) with Bouy Dary on one of his visits to RSN Stadium

A good friend of Phnom Penh Crown head coach Sam Schweingruber, UEFA Pro Licence coach Fritz Schmid, has been appointed as the new Technical Director of the Malaysian Football Association. The 54-year-old Swiss national is on a three-year contract to assist in the development of football and oversee the progress of the national and project teams. As a coach he has more than 30 years of expertise in amateur, elite youth and professional football. In his career, he has worked for English club Spurs as well as Grasshopper Club Zurich, FC Aarau, SC Kriens, FC Zurich and most successfully with FC Basel. For the last four years he has worked as the assistant coach of the Austrian national team in addition to his tireless work for FIFA and UEFA as a coaching instructor. Fritz has been to visit Crown on a few occasions in the past, joining the squad and Academy for a series of coaching sessions and is always a welcome visitor to Cambodia. Malaysia are currently without a permanent head coach after the contract of Krishnasamy Rajagobal came to an end and are expected to announce a new foreign coach before the end of the month.

Next week Crown coach Sam Schweingruber will be heading to Jordan in the Middle East to attend the Soccerex Asian Forum, taking place on 13-14 May. The Forum, in partnership with the Asian Football Development Project, will be opened by HRH Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein and will bring together the leading figures from the world of Asian football as well as other international football experts to discuss the development of the game across Asia. Sam has been invited to attend as a speaker, with hot topics such as corporate social responsibility and women's football on the list of sessions to be covered at the event. The following week, Sam will also attend a Sports for Development Conference in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. At the same event, the AFC Dream Asia 2013 Awards will be announced. Dream Asia is the AFC’s social responsibility initiative and highlights the value of football as a tool for social change.