As Kelantan bulldozed their way past Perak to their second consecutive Malaysian Super League title, one player seems to stand out in the eyes of their Croatian coach, Bojan Hodak.
Hodak, who took over from Englishman Peter Butler halfway through the season and steered Kelantan to the championship, told local satellite television ASTRO that he believes there has not been a better Malaysian player to grace the local league in the last decade than former international, Indra Putra Mahayuddin. The well-travelled Indra, who rejoined Kelantan at the beginning of the season after a season away with T-Team last year, helped himself to a hat-trick in Kelantan’s 6-0 drubbing of Perak in Kota Bharu last night.
When asked about Indra’s contribution in the game, Hodak who is well versed in local football said, “Indra Putra is the best player in Malaysia in the last 10 years, definitely. He can still play. Some people said he is an old player, old man, but he knows how to play. He is definitely for me the best player in the last 10 years.”
The former UPB-MyTeam FC coach said his players were really motivated before the game and that Kelantan really deserved the title for playing football the right way throughout the season. He was also quick to stress the fact that there is not a better Malaysian team than Kelantan at the moment by highlighting the 17 point gap between them and the next best placed local side, Selangor in third place. “We have been the most consistent so we deserve the title”, he added.
Now that Kelantan have sealed the title, Bojan also confirmed that he will be resting players for the upcoming games to keep them fresh since he can afford it. “I can now afford to change as we are little more relaxed” Bojan remarked.
Kelantan’s focus will now shift to completing the unprecedented treble, by taking home the Malaysia Cup, which kicks-off at the end of August.