Dollah Salleh

Dollah was one of Malaysia's top footballers in the 1980's and 90's. He with striking partner "The King" Zainal Abidin Hassan were regarded as the twin strikers by the local football fans. Dollah first played in Malaysian football in 1982. At that time he represented Johor, which was one of the teams in the semi-pro era. When Dollah joined the Selangor in 1987, a new twin striker was born after the era of Hassan Sani and James Wong. He and Zainal became the fierce striking partner for both Selangor and the Malaysia national team. In 1991, he left Selangor to join Pahang with Zainal and Singapore football star Fandi Ahmad where they create a 'dream team' and manage to win both league and Malaysia Cup in 1992.[2]

With the national team, Dollah won the gold medal in the 1989 Southeast Asian Games. He also helped the national team to win the 1993 Merdeka Tournament by beating South Korea 3–1. Dollah also played in the first edition of ASEAN Football Championship, where the national team manage to go through the final of the competition but losing 0–1 to Thailand. He also played for Malaysia national futsal team, and was in the squad that took part in the 1996 FIFA Futsal World Championship in Spain.[3] Dollah retired as a player after the 1998 season ended. The last team he represented was Negeri Sembilan.

Dollah started his coaching career with Selangor MPPJ in 2003. The same year he guided the team to become the first ever club to win Malaysia Cup by beating Sabah 3–0. He later guided Selangor MPPJ to win the Malaysia Charity Shield and Malaysia Premier League in 2004. In 2005, Selangor signed a long deal with him. That year, Selangor won three trophies, Malaysia Premier League, Malaysia FA Cup, and Malaysia Cup. However, in 2005–06 season, Selangor failed to keep their momentum as they failed to win any trophy. Even though Selangor failed to win any trophy, Selangor kept Dollah in charge for 2006–07 season. The 2007–08 season saw the revival of Selangor as they went through to the final of Malaysia FA Cup and Malaysia Cup. However they were beaten by Kedah with the same score line in the two finals. The failure saw Dollah left out by the management.

In 2009 season, Dollah reunited with his Zainal. This time they played the role as manager and coach for Kuantan Port-Shahzan Muda. In the middle of the 2009 season, he switched to coach Pahang, replacing Tajuddin Noor.[2] After successfully helping Pahang lift the first Malaysia Cup in 21 years, Dollah signed to coach PDRM for 2014 season in Malaysian second-tier league. In his only season with PDRM, he guided them to the 2014 Malaysia Premier League title and promotion to Super League.

Dollah was appointed as the new head coach of Malaysia national team in June 2014, signing a 2-year contract.[4] He led Malaysia to win second place during the 2014 AFF Championship. However, he received many criticisms as he was responsible for the 0–6 defeats at the hands of Palestine and Oman, the team failure to get three points against Timor Leste, Bangladesh and Hong Kong as well losing to Tajikistan and Syria that were once at the same standard as Malaysia earlier in 2014. His last straw was the largest record defeat of the national team by 0–10 at the hand of the United Arab Emirates. This subsequently causing him to resign as the head coach on 3 September 2015.[5][6]

• Dollah Salleh – FIFA competition record