By Badrulhisham Othman

Part 3: Chud left behind a big shoe to fill

Will there ever be any Pahang born player in the future who can fit into Rosmaini Mohamed Shah a.k.a Chud’s big shoes symbolically or physically?

So far, it remains a big challenge for them to score as many goals as possible like him or attract so much interest from the football fraternity. After all, most of the jobs to score goals in Malaysia are now outsourced to foreign players.

Now, it is doubtful that any local player would need to look high and low for a pair of size 11 UK boots like Chud did back in those days.

According to Chud’s younger brother, Faisal, 61, Chud would occasionally depend on his relative who was working in Germany to send over the right size boots of his choice.

“One of the boots which was sent to him was a pair of six studs Adidas World Cup. I was so tempted to try it. With Chud’s permission I wore it in a football game at school and you can see the reaction of my teammates.

Faisal (standing 4^th  from right), wore oversized Rosmaini’s Adidas World Cup boots that astonished his Sultan Abu Bakar School (SABS)

“But to play in it I had to stuff a lot of cloth and newspaper in it,” said Faisal, who was a goalkeeper for Pahang Razak Cup (under 19 tournament).

Chud is the second child of Mohamed Shah Abdullah and Jamilah Ismail from Bukit Sekilau, Kuantan. The couple had nine children and three of them were footballers. They were great fans of Chud and had never missed any Pahang games that Chud played. They also had to cope with gunny sacks of letters and post cards sent by Chud’s fan regularly.

“I have another brother, Abdullah, who was also a footballer. Chud, Abdullah and I played for the JKR team in Kuantan league. Although I was working for the Forestry Department, I was eligible to join my brothers because the department did not take part in the league,” explained Faisal.

Chud was close to his siblings, but he seldom shared stories unless it’s really bothering him.

“He got very upset and could not tolerate things he considered disrespectful to him as a player when envelopes with money were being stuffed under his hotel door and getting strange calls from someone in the hotel lobby,’’ said Faisal sharing Chud’s experience with bookies.

Perhaps the only sin Chud did was that he was a social smoker and needed a few puffs during half-time maybe to settle down his nerve. In those days, it was an open secret that a few local and international stars did have the habit of smoking in their playing days.

“Chud was the only player in Pahang team who had the permission by Cikgu Ishak to have a few puffs during half time away from the dressing room,” said Faisal. It was reported that Chud told the national coach, Karl Heinz Weigang, about his smoking habit and other personal matters when he asked to be released from the national training camp in Fraser’s Hill, Pahang, while preparing for the Pre-World Cup match against Kuwait in 1981.

Chud’s wish was reluctantly granted by the German coach and the team went on with the mission in Kuwait only to lose 4-0. Some players cited that they were training in the chill wind of Fraser’s Hill, while the game in Kuwait was played in the hot dry air and some players suffered sore throat.

Karl Weigang

When Weigang came back to Kuala Lumpur, he took the first flight out to Kuantan to meet Chud demanding the Pahang striker to come out clean and tell him the truth why he quit the national team. To Weigang’s dismay Chud stuck to his story. Weigang left Chud with a parting words :” I think I know why you quit.”

Why was Rosmaini called Chud? Even Hamidon Abdullah, his roommate in Pahang and national team doesn’t know. “When I knew him in the mid 70s everybody already called him Chud,” said Hamidon.

“My eldest sister called him ‘Adik’. Other siblings address him ‘Abang’. My mum and dad and rest of our relatives called him ‘Ros’. But all the younger generation of our family later called him ‘Tok Chud’. The only thing I can think that he got the name Chud was from the football field where he spent most of the time since young with his teammates and coaches,” said Faisal.

Wikipedia explained Chud as a physically unappealing person. Perhaps maybe he was a tall skinny kid on the training ground and awkwardly different from the rest.

“Don’t you think he looks like Mat Kilau? (definitely not the movie),” asked a friend about Chud’s appearance in his later age at 60s.

“I was lucky to know Chud both as a great footballer and a wonderful neighbour and a fine human being. When I am back in Kuantan, we used to chat over the fence, mostly about football,” said S. Sivaraman, whose family lived next door to Chud’s house at Jalan Mat Kilau.

“When my late parents were not well, he used to assure me that he would keep an eye on them and help them when necessary. The State of Pahang owes a lot to Chud,” said Siva.

Since retiring, Chud involved sparingly coaching the youth team. Chud received many coaching offers from many teams, but he turned them down because he wanted to spend more time with his family.

“At a later age, Chud had diabetes, but he was under medication and was very much healthy. However, in late January 2021 Chud began not feeling well. He was diagnosed with a severe bacterial or virus infection and the doctors found out it had affected his kidneys. Chud was in coma, but his body fought it and he was awake on the fifth day and later discharged to rest at home,” said Faisal.

Sadly, Chud’s condition did not improve much, and it was found out the infection had affected his overall health. Chud was admitted again and soldiered on with the treatment for a while before he drew his last breath peacefully at the Hospital Tengku Ampuan Afzan, Kuantan, on 8 April 2021 with the people he loved around him. Chud was survived by his wife, Azam Asiah Ab Kadir, 66.

There is a feeling of emptiness and Kuantan is never the same. Farewell my hero.

“Indeed, we belong to Allah, and indeed to Him we will return.”

MAIN PIX: Rosmaini’s siblings in a picture taken in 2015. (Seated in front from left) Rosmaini, Shaitul Akma, Halimaton, Faisal, Zailan, (Seated behind from left) Fauzon, Shahrul Bariah, Abdullah and Fauzi.