Malaysia coach Kim Pan-gon has announced a list of 26 players to prepare for the 2023 Asian Cup - a tournament that will take place in Qatar from January 12 to February 10, 2024. According to the schedule, the Malaysian players will start training from December 26.
In this training session, Mr. Kim Pan-gon only kept 22 players who participated in 2 matches of the Malaysian team in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers, which took place last November. At that time, the Malaysian team had 2 wins against Kyrgyzstan and Taiwan (China). In addition, the Malaysian team has also included 19 players in the reserve list, to be able to replace them in case the official players are injured.
Four new players are called up for the 2023 Asian Cup, including: Two midfielders Johor Darul Tažzim, Syamer Kutty Abba and Natxo Insa; defenders Selangor FC, Ahmad Khuzaimi Piee and striker of Kuala Lumpur City FC, Romel Morales. Among them, striker Morales is the most notable player.
Morales is Colombian but has been naturalized as a Malaysian citizen and became the 8th naturalized player to play for Harimau Muda (the Malaysian national team's nickname). The 26-year-old striker played for PKNS and Melaka United before playing for Kuala Lumpur City FC. He played an important role in helping Kuala Lumpur City FC win the Malaysian Cup in 2021, runner-up in the 2022 AFC Cup...
In total, Morales has scored 46 goals in 148 appearances in 5 seasons playing in Malaysia. He is expected to create a new boost for the Malaysia attack, which has played very impressively recently. Malaysia is the only Southeast Asian team to win all 2 matches after the first 2 matches of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers.
Looking forward to the 2023 Asian Cup, the Malaysian team also set an ambition to go deep. Excluding the 2007 tournament as co- hosts, Malaysia qualified for the first time since 1980. According to the draw results, Malaysia is in Group E with South Korea, Jordan and Bahrain.
With the current strength and form, it will be difficult for the Malaysian team to compete with the Korean team. However, they can completely defeat the remaining 2 opponents, to get a ticket to the round of 16 of the 2023 Asian Cup. This is also the goal set by coach Kim Pan-gon.
To prepare for the 2023 Asian Cup, the Malaysian team is scheduled to have 3 friendly matches against Lebanon (January 4, 2024), Palestine (January 9, 2024) and Hong Kong (China) (January 10, 2024).
