KUCHING: I had known Alan Vest, a coach I deeply admired and who became a close friend, during the nine years he spent in Sarawak.
As a reporter then, I not only covered football but also learned much about the intricacies of the modern game and how it evolved in Sarawak.
Vest was the man who put Sarawak on the football map. Through his astute management and coaching, he became the only coach to qualify Sarawak for international football after leading the team to win the league title in 1997.
They faced Yangon FC of Myanmar in the first round, and in the second round against Kashima Antlers of Japan, his protégé Jalil Ramli took over the coaching duties.
His work was remarkable, reflecting his depth of knowledge and professionalism.
“I was a builder of teams, not a coach with riches,” he once told me in a magazine interview.
When he first received coaching offers from Malaysia’s semi-professional league, it was Selangor that approached him.
He was promised full control over football management at the club, but upon arrival, he was informed that the players had already been selected and that he was to begin coaching immediately.
Disappointed, he turned instead to the offer from the then Sarawak FA’s president, the late Datuk Taha Ariffin, who admired him after reviewing his qualifications.
Upon arriving in Sarawak, Vest was taken to see the stadium and then to his hotel. Feeling out of place, he considered taking the next flight home.
“I was in the bathtub telling myself, ‘Where on earth am I?’ But later, I composed myself and decided to take the job,” he once recalled.
“I chose Sarawak because Haji Taha offered me the post of manager-cum-coach, which was enticing as it gave me a free hand in my work,” he added, noting that one of his greatest frustrations as a coach was outside interference.
In his first press conference, he promised to bring Sarawak to the First Division within one season, and he achieved exactly that.
He also brought in effective, if lesser-known, foreign players such as John Hunter, the six-foot-six David Evans, and Jeff Curran, who had played in the Hong Kong League.
His decisions proved right when Hunter scored the winning goal in the 2-1 FA Cup victory against Kuala Lumpur, clinching Sarawak’s first FAM-sponsored Cup title.
Before his stint in Sarawak, Vest was the first agent to bring professional players, Alistair Edwards and Abbas Saad, to play for Singapore in the Semi-Pro League.
A constant advocate for grassroots development, he often lamented the lack of comprehensive youth leagues in Sarawak, criticising the reliance on one-off tournaments instead.
When Vest arrived in Sarawak after the fallout of the ‘Ngap Sayot’ era – when the team conceded 62 goals and scored only nine throughout the season – Sarawak was in desperate need of revival.
Despite working under a shoestring budget and unable to attract top local or foreign players initially, he discovered hidden talents such as striker, Shamsurin Wahab, midfielder Ong Kim Swee (now Datuk), and goalkeeper Mazlan Wahid.
Vest always made time for reporters, unlike some coaches, as he believed the media had an important job to do.
After nine seasons, Sarawak had to let him go due to financial constraints. He later joined Singapore’s S-League but expressed regret at not accepting the Singapore national team job, as he was still under contract with Sarawak and was not released.
He admitted this was one of the few professional regrets of his career, though he remained honourable in upholding his Sarawak contract.
Even after his tenure ended, Vest expressed willingness to return to Sarawak to help organise coaching courses for schoolchildren, often on a voluntary basis.
He later resided in Perth, Australia, where he suffered from ill health and led a quiet life.
For all his contributions to Sarawak, Alan Vest stands tall among the state’s greatest sporting figures, a true legend of Sarawak football.
