Friday, March 30, 2012
Friday March 30, 2012
YEARS after retiring from professional English football, former players John Barnes and Paul Parker still leave Malaysian fans flustered during the recent meet-and-greet sessions.
Barnes, who used to play for Liverpool, and Parker, for Manchester United, were in Kuala Lumpur recently to promote the upcoming Standard Chartered EPL Masters Malaysia Cup 2012.
Ardent Liverpool and Man U fans could be seen queuing up eagerly at one such session at the WIP outlet in the Bangsar Shopping Centre to get autographs of the players and take pictures with them.
“We’re looking forward to the Masters Cup because most of us still have that competitive edge in us and we go all out to try to win each game,” said Barnes.
During their time in Malaysia, Barnes and Parker also visited the SM Pendidikan Khas Cacat Penglihatan in Setapak, a special school for visually impaired children, along with Standard Chartered Bank Malaysia employees.
The visit was organised by the bank as part of its “Seeing is Believing” global community initiative to help tackle avoidable blindness where the footballers helped conduct a coaching clinic for over 50 students.
“We believe in providing the disabled with the same opportunities as everyone else so they can function as productive members of society. Facilitating their development in sports has been a big part of our agenda,” said Standard Chartered Bank Malaysia corporate affairs country head Norliza Kamaruddin.
The children are ardent football fans and the once-in-a lifetime opportunity allowed them to rub shoulders with the international stars.
“They are really good, they showed us new skills and tricks and they are funny too,” said one of the students.
“Every year I look forward to the events Standard Chartered is organising for us, I enjoyed the clinic although it was quite tiring,” quipped another.
Standard Chartered has been supporting several schools by involving their students in their sporting events such as the Standard Chartered KL Marathon, Liverpool FC Asia Tour and Standard Chartered EPL Masters Malaysia tournament.
Last year, 50 visually-impaired runners took part in the KL Marathon with the aid of the bank’s staff as running guides, while another 50 walked into the Stadium Putra Bukit Jalil pitch with the Liverpool Masters squad during the opening of the Masters tournament.
The EPL Masters Malaysia Cup this year will take place on April 22 at Stadium Malawati in Shah Alam and the four teams competing will be Liverpool Masters, Manchester United Masters, EPL All-Stars and the Malaysian Masters.
