Here’s a dreamy story about a family of five national football heroes, a hockey legend and an impressive lineage of athletes.
They come from a line of 15 siblings whose belief that sports represent a significant aspect of Malaysian life pulled everyone together.
Through familial bonds, one dream and hard work, they have created a dynasty of sports excellence.
When you meet them, there’s a bit of a “Sound of Music” vibe to the Lims, if the Van Tropp family had been filled with athletes rather than singers.
If the movie shows how the power of music can unite a family, the Lim pedigree is a stirring example of how shared passion can bring families together while inspiring communities to dream big.
The youth of Malaysia traditionally look to athletes as heroes, and five brothers and their sister, from Melaka, took centre stage over four decades.
The Lim brothers – football centre-back Seng Koon, midfielders Kim Chon and Teong Kim, and goalkeepers Chuan Chin and Hong Guan spiritedly took their place in Malaysian football.
Their sister, Mary, was recently inducted into the Olympic Council of Malaysia Hall of Fame, along with her teammates from the bronze-winning women’s hockey team in the 1982 Asian Games.
The younger generation has been adding their own achievements at national and state levels, and in Singapore, to keep the Lim flag flying high.
Today, the family will come together for their Chinese New Year reunion dinner in an evening of gratitude, joy and reflection.
Mary said: “Sports may run through the veins of the Lim clan but family always comes first.”
The early Lim sporting warriors
When Mary, the 13th of 15 siblings, was growing up in Melaka in the 1960s and first started playing football, there were few outlets for girls interested in sports.
Then, it was perfectly right to say, “girls can’t do this.”
Even so, her father Lim Thong and mother, Tan Lan, encouraged sports, discipline and teamwork – values, Mary said, shaped their journey to the world stage.
Mary was a happy girl, representing Melaka in women’s football and hockey as a forward from 1974 to 1976, and played basketball and netball as well.
The Holy Infant Jesus Convent student chose to focus on hockey, wearing Selangor and Kuala Lumpur colours and becoming a top scorer for the Malaysia team until 1989.
Mary, 63, described herself as a “warrior woman who was always persistent in achieving my goals”.
She said it was double joy for her family when she and Teong Kim won the gold medal in hockey and football respectively at the 1989 SEA Games in Kuala Lumpur.
Teong Kim’s teammates then included goalkeeper Rashid Hassan, the late defender Serbegeth Singh, midfielders Mat Zan Mat Aris and Ahmad Yusof, and strikers Dollah Salleh, Zainal Abidin and P Ravindran.
Mary said her brothers were the perfect combination of nature and nurture.
The boys, who learned the game from some fine coaches, diverged in physical shape, playing style and personality.
Seng Koon was a rugged enforcer, Kim Chon and Teong Kim were attacking midfielders while Chuan Chin and Hong Guan were combative goalkeepers.
All of them wore the Harimau Malaya badge in the 70s, 80s and 90s, with Teong Kim earning 75 international caps.
On occasions, they were in the same national side, like Seng Koon and Kim Chon who helped Malaysia beat Singapore 3-2 to win the Thailand King’s Cup in 1978.
Seng Koon is now 72 years old, Kim Chon, 70, Chuan Chin, 68, Hong Guan, 66, and Teong Kim, 62.
Mary married Wong Kooi Yong who played football as goalkeeper for Perak Chinese from 1981 to 1983 and for Kuala Lumpur club Hong Chin in the late 80s.
Herr Lim
You could make the argument that Teong Kim has been the best Malaysian to play and coach football abroad.
He was the first Malaysian to do that in Europe but his broader mark of distinction comes from the youngsters he coached in Germany.
Teong Kim was in Bayern Munich’s under-13 and under-14 coaching set-ups for 12 years from 2000, and some of the boys in the system would go on to become global superstars.
Germany’s World Cup winner, Thomas Muller, is on record attributing much of his success in his formative years to Teong Kim.
Teong Kim also had a hand in the rise to professional football of Germans Toni Kroos, Mats Hummels, Holger Badstuber and Emre Can, and Austria’s David Alaba.
He played for Hertha Berlin in 1987 but it was his notable credentials at Bayern Munich that got him hired as director of Malaysia’s football development programme in 2013.
Three years later, he was appointed director of the Mokhtar Dahari Academy until 2019.
Former sports minister Khairy Jamaluddin said later: “He was a hard taskmaster. He pushed the boys to their limits. He demanded the best from his coaches. He had his detractors.”
Teong Kim has taken a break from football pending his case against Perak FC over his premature dismissal as head coach in 2023.
Passing the torch
In the final of the 1989 SEA Games men’s football, Harimau Malaya were singing in the rain against luckless Singapore.
On the opposing bench was a forlorn 20-year-old, watching his uncle Teong Kim inspire the marauding Malaysia to a 3-1 win over his side that included striker Fandi Ahmad and defender Terry Pathmanathan.
He was Tong Hai, the son of Kim Han who is the firstborn in the Lim household.
He said his passion for the sport was ignited by his uncles.
For Tong Hai, now 54 years old, the memories from the match were nothing compared to that from the 1993 Games when he scored two own goals in the semifinal against Myanmar.
The centre-back was devastated. Singapore would draw the game 3-3 before being edged out in the penalty shootout.
A year later, Tong Hai grabbed a Malaysia Cup and league double with Singapore.
He competed in five SEA Games, clinching one silver and three bronze medals with the Lions, and captained them to win the Tiger Cup in 1998.
Tong Hai’s son Jared Lim and daughter Jade Lim have represented Singapore in waterpolo and swimming respectively.
Kim Han’s daughter’s son, Martyn Mun, was the goalkeeper for Singapore in the Under-23 Asian Cup football qualifiers in 2021.
Presently, the Lim making waves in local football is Seng Koon’s son, Damien, who is Sabah FC goalkeeper.
Damien’s older brother, Jason, has seen action in leagues in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur as an utility player, while his sister Janice was a shuttler for Federal Territories from 2003 to 2006.
Kim Chon’s son, Matthew, skippered Malaysia in the Under-17 3×3 Asia Cup basketball tournament in 2022.
In the following year, Matthew, who also plays flag football, helped Malaysia become champions in 3×3 and runners-up in 5×5 in the Asia-Pacific Cup.
Chuan Chin’s daughter, Jessica, represented the country in volleyball as a libero at the Asean Schools Games in 2001 and 2002.
Mary said the granddaughters of her late sister Suzie, Kimberly and Kassandra Ong, are wushu exponents in Singapore.
The sisters, she added, had podium finishes in the Asian and SEA Games, and world junior championships in the daoshu, gunshu and changquan events.
She also paid tribute to her sister Rosalind’s son, the late Adrian Louis, who played hockey for Selangor and the national juniors from 1993 until 1995.
Growing up with sports heroes
An aspect that should be of concern to anyone involved in sports at any level is that the youth of Malaysia regard athletes as role models.
In a sense, it is one of the elements that keeps a family together by providing a common interest, and the value of that cannot be overstated.
Heroes are important and the Lim family, like badminton’s Sideks, have been a source of national pride.
We don’t want a situation where the nation runs dry of exemplary athletes because families don’t see sports as an important part of Malaysian life.
Remember the song lyric, “Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio? A nation turns its lonely eyes to you.”
The nation’s “lonely eyes” suggest a longing for a figure who represented hope, greatness, and nostalgia, highlighting a collective sense of loss.
The lyrics are from the song, “Mrs Robinson” by Simon & Garfunkel , a tribute to Joe DiMaggio, a baseball player, who represented American values of excellence and dignity.
