Speaking at the launch of the “Harimau Malaya 1980” documentary at Astro today, Salleh said Malaysia needed its political players to be as united as the players who were united in the field of sports, having one goal in mind.

“If political players can learn from sports people, Malaysia can truly be united.

“We can play politics but in the end, what’s important is our country. Malaysia is very important,” he said in his speech during the launch.

Astro’s “Harimau Malaya 1980” documentary shines the spotlight on the legendary 1980 national football team.

It will air on Astro’s Arena and SuperSports channels on Sept 16, and on Astro’s vernacular channels the following day.

The documentary will take viewers back through the journey of the “most inspirational football team Malaysia has ever had” and what made them so special, Astro Malaysia Chief Operating Officer Henry Tan said.

“The 1980 Harimau Malaya team is arguably the most inspirational football team we’ve had.

“We thought it would be timely in conjunction with Malaysia Day to share this story with all Malaysians, to see what made them so special and what the winning formula was,” Tan said at the launch today.

Tan pointed to Malaysian football history, saying that Malaysia had in 1972 qualified for the Olympics, but went through a rough patch in the years that followed.

“The 1980 team had to rebuild almost from ground zero. The odds were all against them.

“They had very little time to rebuild. There was much personal sacrifice, hard work and determination,” Tan said.

Also present at the launch were the 1980 national football team captain Soh Chin Aun, striker James Wong (who scored the winning goal for Malaysia against South Korea in that fateful Moscow Olympics football qualifying match in Kuala Lumpur), and the coach of that historic team, Karl-Heinz Weigang, who is back in Malaysia over the past year as coach of the Perak team in the Malaysian Super League.