Malaysia national under-23 football team (Malay:Pasukan bola sepak kebangsaan bawah-23 Malaysia), also known asMalaysia Under-23,Malaysia U-23 orMalaysia Olympic football team is the nationalassociation football team ofMalaysia in under-23 and 22 level, representing the country at theOlympic Games,Asian Games andSoutheast Asian Games, as well as any other under-23 international football tournaments including theAFC U-23 Championship.
The team is considered to be the feeder team for theMalaysia national football team. It is for players aged 23 and less, however 3 senior players can also be selected to play. Also in existence are national teams for the Under-20s, Under-17s and Under-15s. As long as they are eligible, players can play at any level, hence it is possible for one to play for the U-23s, senior side and then again for the U-23s.
Olympic 2000
After the1997 FIFA World Youth Championship, FAM was aiming to qualify for the 2000 Sydney Olympic. Thus, the FAM spent about US$6 million and continued the contract of Malaysian youth team coach,Hatem Souissi. Then FAM formed a squad known asOlympic 2000 with a combination of 1997 youth squad and other under 23 players. FAM decided to include Olympic 2000 as one of the teams in Malaysia League. Their first match was againstJohor FA in a qualification match for Malaysia Premier I League. The team won their first match away 1–0 before drawing 1–1 at home to qualify for Malaysia Premier I League. However the team finished bottom during the 1998 season with only 4 wins in 22 matches.[2] The Olympic 2000 also showed poor performance at the international stage. They were humiliated by theThailand Asian Games squad in a 1998 friendly match as the Thais beat them 9–0. During the qualification matches, Olympic 2000 only managed to finish third behind Hong Kong and Japan. It was questioned among fans how a squad that had been playing together since 1995 with fine talents and given so much exposure cannot achieve expectations.
Disbandment of Harimau Muda
AfterHarimau Muda project disbanded, FAM needed a fresh start for the U-23 team where a new set of players was brought in for the team with the creation ofSEA Games Project 2017 team.[3] The players in the team mainly consisted of players with ages around 18 to 21 years old where the oldest players will be below the age requirement of 22 years old when2017 SEA Games in Malaysia started. With a bigger pool of players within age of 18–22, the players in the team will also play in other age-restricted tournament as the younger side such as U-21 and U-22 when needed.
In July 2009,K. Rajagopal was named as the new coach of the Malaysia U-23 team. Under his management, Malaysia qualified for the semifinals of the2009 SEA Games after becoming the runners-up of Group A with only one point behind the group champion,Vietnam. Malaysia then defeated Laos 3–1 in the semifinals, before meeting Vietnam again and defeating them 1–0 in the final with an own goal scored byMai Xuân Hợp in 85th minute.[4] This was to be their fifth SEA Games gold medal and also the first great achievement for the U-23 team under Rajagopal who also led Malaysia to qualify for the second round of the2010 Asian Games as one of the four best third-placed teams after a lapse of 32 years.[5]
In 2011, the team was taken over byOng Kim Swee. The new coach later arranged two friendly matches againstThailand andSingapore in preparation for the2012 Olympics qualifiers. Malaysia lost narrowly by 1–2 to Thailand[7] but won 2–0 against Singapore.[8]
Malaysia then advanced to the semifinals of the2011 SEA Games by topping Group A after defeating the host,Indonesia 1–0. Then, Malaysia also beatMyanmar 1–0 in the semifinals to advance to the final. In the final, they met Indonesia again and held them to a 1–1 draw until the end, resulting in apenalty shoot-out which Malaysia won 4–3. This was also the sixth SEA Games football gold medal led by Ong Kim Swee after the successful achievement in 2009.[9]
The team then continued their success by qualifying for the third round of2012 Olympic Asian Qualifiers after defeatingPakistan in the first round andLebanon in the second round where they became the sole team fromSoutheast Asia to qualify for the third round. However, in the third round, Malaysia lost all of their first three third round matches at the2012 Olympic Asian qualifying matches, losing 0–2 to bothJapan andSyria and 2–3 to Bahrain. Malaysia also lost their second three third round matches and was subsequently eliminated.
Several years after the revival, the team made another debut to pass theAFC U-23 qualification in 2018. Positioned in Group H, the team managed to defeat Indonesia by a score of 3–0 while suffering a similar score defeat to Thailand in the second match, the team subsequently bounced back and defeatedMongolia by 2–0. By leading the group, Malaysia was able to qualify for the AFC U-23 Championship. The team was then placed inGroup C, losing toIraq in the first match by 1–4 before bouncing back to holdJordan 1–1 and defeatingSaudi Arabia 1–0, to end up as the group runner-up and subsequently became the first Southeast Asian representatives alongside Vietnam to qualify for the quarterfinal of the tournament for the first time in both teams' history.[10] In their quarterfinal match however, Malaysia lost toSouth Korea by 1–2.[11]
The team then achieved surprising results after being drawn in Group E in the2018 Asian Games together withKyrgyzstan, defending championSouth Korea and Bahrain. Malaysia opened their group matches with a 3–1 victory against Kyrgyzstan before defeating the tournament favourites South Korea that was led by their2018 FIFA World Cup players such as the famous pair of strikersSon Heung-min,Hwang Hee-chan and their goalkeeperJo Hyeon-woo by 2–1, but the goalkeeper did not play in the match since he was rested.[12] Malaysia's victory against South Korea is their first win against the South Korea in theAsian Games tournament after 16 years.[13] With expectations running high from the fans and rising, the team however failed to continue their success after losing to Bahrain by 2–3 after already having qualified for the second round and leading the group.[14][15] The team then met Japan and was eliminated from the tournament after their players wasted attacking opportunities by playing cautiously in addition to their defensive mistakes in the 90th minute that subsequently gave the advantage to their opponents with apenalty kick being awarded which was successfully converted by Japanese strikerAyase Ueda resulting in a 0–1 score until the end of the match.[16][17]
In 2009, the Malaysian team started using the same squad for their under-23 team and senior team under the new management of coachK. Rajagopal. The senior team uses players below the age of 23, together with their senior players likeSafee Sali andNorhafiz Zamani Misbah. This was set for the national team to prepare for the challenges ahead of them. Since then, Malaysia also used some of their under-23 players for other tournaments such as the Ho Chi Minh City Cup,2010 Asian Games and2010 AFF Championship. Malaysia followed this practice since the Football Association of Malaysia chairman,HRH Sultan Ahmad Shah, planned this and set it mainly for Rajagopal.[citation needed] This is as a result of the humiliating loss of the senior team by 0–5 to theUnited Arab Emirates at the2011 AFC Asian Cup qualification.
Malaysia 1–1Japan 
Thailand 9–0Malaysia.svg){kind=icon}
Gold Medal (2009,2011)
1992
1996
2000
2004
2008
2012
2016
2020
2024
2002
2006
2018
Oman
Maldives
Iraq
Kyrgyzstan
Iran
Laos
Saudi Arabia
Bahrain
2022
Silver
2003
Bronze
2005
Gold
2013
2015
2023
Brunei
Myanmar
2013
India
26' (pen.),85' (pen.)
v
Lebanon
v
Jose Baxter
Hatem Souissi (1997–1999)
Bertalan Bicskei (2005)
Frank Bernhardt (2016–2017)
.svg)
