Irfan Bakti
Personal information
Full name Irfan Bakti bin Abu Salim
Date of birth (1951-04-01) 1 April 1951 (age 72)[1]
Place of birth Perak, Malaysia
Position(s) Midfielder
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1971–1974 Kelantan FA
1975–1977 ATM FA
International career
1976 Malaysia 2 (0)
Managerial career
1994–1995 Malaysia (assistant)
1996 Malaysia Deaf national football team
1996–1997 Malaysia (assistant)
1997 Malaysia U23
1999–2000 Negeri Sembilan FA
2001–2003 Penang FA
2004–2007 Melaka TMFC
2007 Persipura Jayapura
2008 Perlis FA
2009–2011 Terengganu FA
2012–2013 Selangor FA
2013–2016 Felda United FC
2017–2019 Terengganu FA
2021-2023 Kuching City F.C.
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Irfan Bakti Abu Salim is a Malaysian football coach, who last worked as head coach of the Malaysia Premier League club Kuching City.

Playing career

He had played with Kelantan FA and ATM FA in 1970s.[1] He also was in the Malaysia squad for the 1976 AFC Asian Cup in Tehran, Iran.[2]

Coaching career

Beginnings

He spent most of his early coaching days as a coach with the Football Association of Malaysia in Wisma FAM. He first worked as a state coach with the Negri Sembilan team, and later joined Penang FA and TMFC respectively. In 2007, he suddenly resigned from TMFC to coach an Indonesian team, Persipura Jayapura. He returned to Malaysian football in 2008, joining Perlis FA. He later left Perlis and joined Terengganu FA for the 2010/11 season.[3][4] He was the head coach of Selangor FA from 2012 until his resignation in 2013.[5]

Felda

Irfan was unveiled as new coach of Felda United FC in November 2013.[6]

With Felda, he guided them to the 2014 Malaysia FA Cup Final, where they lost 2–1 to Pahang, conceding goals at the last minute after leading for the long period of the game.[7] Felda continued their revitalized season by performing well in that year's Malaysia Cup with a win against a strong Johor Darul Ta'zim F.C. team at rainy muddy pitch of MPS Stadium by 4–3, but lost in the second leg of the semi-final.[8] In the domestic campaign they finished second which saw only PDRM managed to prevented them from winning the Malaysia second tier division.

In 2015, Felda finished the season in 5th placed and make it to semi final of Malaysia cup.

In 2016, Felda ended the season as runners-up, their best position ever since inception. But Irfan left the team at the end of the season to take the head coach position of Terengganu for the second time.

Terengganu

Irfan was tasked to bring back Terengganu[9] to their glory days after number of coached comes in comes out end up with poor tactical, bad result cost the team relegation to premier league. Their best achievement was when Irfan was their head coach by winning the 2011 FA cup, super league & Malaysia cup runners up in 1 single season. On 20 October 2018, he managed to bring Terengganu advance to the 2018 Malaysia Cup final when Terengganu beaten heavily favourite Johor Darul Ta'zim (JDT) with 3–2 score aggregate but loss to Perak in penalty shootout (4-1).

Achievement

As a Player

Kelantan FA

FAM Cup
  • 1971(Runner-up), 1972 (Runner-up)
Kings Gold Cup
  • 1972, 1973 (Runner-up)

As a Coach

Malaysia U23

Bangabandhu Cup

Penang FA

FA Cup Malaysia
  • 2000(Runner-up),2002
Malaysia Charity Shield
  • 2003
Malaysia Super League
  • 2000(Runner-up),2001

Perlis FA

Malaysia Charity Shield
  • 2008

Terengganu FA

FA Cup Malaysia
  • 2011
Malaysia Cup
  • 2011(Runner-up) & 2018(Runner-up)
Malaysia Super League
  • 2011(Runner-up)

Felda United F.C.

Malaysia Premier League
  • 2014(Runner-up)
FA Cup Malaysia
  • 2014(Runner-up)
Malaysia Super League
  • 2016(Runner-up)

Individual

National Football Award

References

  1. ^ a b c "Cukup sekadar pasukan kelab, negeri - Irfan Bakti" (in Malay). Berita Harian. Archived from the original on 26 October 2022. Retrieved 26 October 2022.
  2. ^ "Sertaan Malaysia dim Piala Asia bagai 'mimpi tiba2 jadi kenjataan'". eresources.nlb.gov.sg.
  3. ^ "Irfan Bakti to coach Terengganu next season". besonline. 20 November 2009. Archived from the original on 22 July 2011. Retrieved 24 October 2010.
  4. ^ "Irfan Bakti Has High Hopes For Terengganu". BNet Source: Bernama; Malaysian National News Agency. 25 November 2009. Retrieved 24 October 2010.
  5. ^ "Irfan Bakti resigns as Selangor head coach | Goal.com". www.goal.com.
  6. ^ "Irfan's target: Felda promotion to Super League - Football | The Star Online". Archived from the original on 20 December 2013.
  7. ^ Krishnan, Gowri (19 May 2017). "#Throwback Piala FA 2014: Pahang 2-1 Felda United".
  8. ^ Harian, Sinar (26 December 2018). "Nasional". Sinarharian.
  9. ^ Bakar, Baharom (17 October 2016). "Irfan Bakti sah milik Terengganu". Berita Harian.
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