Chow Chee Keong

Chow Chee Keong
	Chee Keong playing for South China
Personal information
Date of birth	26 November 1948
Place of birth	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Date of death	21 February 2018 (aged 69)
Height	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Position(s)	Goalkeeper
Senior career*
Years	Team
1967–1968	Bedford Town
1970	HK Rangers
1970–1971	Jardine
1971–1974	South China
1974–1977	Tung Sing
1977–1979	South China
1981	South China
1981–1982	HK Rangers
International career
1965–1985	Malaysia
Traditional Chinese
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	仇志強
Simplified Chinese	仇志强
Hanyu Pinyin
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin	Qiú Zhìqiáng
Yue: Cantonese
Jyutping	Kau4 Zi3 Koeng4
	*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Chow Chee Keong (26 November 1948 – 21 February 2018)^[2] was a Malaysian football goalkeeper who played in Hong Kong and the Malaysian national football team.

Career

His nickname in Hong Kong was Asian Steel Gate (Chinese: 亞洲鋼門) and Crazy Sword (Chinese: 神經刀). He was a Malaysian Chinese. In 1963, he represented the Malaysian in under-20 level as a 13-year-old. Two years later, he joined the Malaysian national football team as a 15-year-old. At that point, he was the youngest ever Malaysian international player. He was briefly on the playing staff at Bedford Town FC. From 1966 to 1970, he was voted by the Asian Football Confederation as the best goalkeeper five times in a row.^[3]^[4]^[5]

In 1968, he came to Hong Kong with a Chinese Malaysian selection side and many Hong Kong clubs took notice of him. Two years later, he joined Hong Kong Rangers for three guest matches. Then, he joined Jardine for a salary of HK$2,500 per month^[6] which was the Hong Kong record at that time. However, a year later, Jardines withdrew from the Hong Kong football league system. So he moved to South China where his career started to take off. For his three seasons with South China, he won many trophies and personal awards. In 1974, he moved to Tung Sing. His salary was HKD 7000 per month plus housing. In 1977, he returned to South China. A year later, he started to play in both Hong Kong league and the Malaysian league simultaneously. In 1979, he left Hong Kong, but returned in 1981. He spent a short time again with South China before moving to Hong Kong Rangers. In 1982, he finally returned to Malaysia and played for Malaysian national football team for three years before retiring from football.

Retirement

He became a golfer after retiring from football. In 1991, he finally earned a coaching license. He first started to teach in Malaysia. In 1995, he moved to a golf club in Shenzhen, China. In 1997, he returned to South China as a golfing instructor.

Honours

Club

South China

Hong Kong First Division:

Winners (3): 1971-72, 1973-74, 1977-78

Hong Kong Senior Shield

Winners (1): 1971-72

Viceroy Cup

Winners (1): 1971-72

International

Malaysia

Merdeka Tournament

Winners (1): 1968^[7]

Individual

AFC Asia's best goalkeeper: 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970^[3]
AFC Asian All Stars: 1968^[8]
Between The Sticks-Top 10 Asian & Oceanic goalkeepers of all time (5th place): 2020^[9]
MasterCard Asian/Oceanian Team of the 20th Century: 1998^[10]
IFFHS Men Best Malaysian Goalkeeper of the Century (1901-2000)^[11]
IFFHS Men’s All Time Malaysia Dream Team: 2022^[12]