If you think Tunku Ismail is only admired across Malaysia, you’re absolutely wrong.
FourthOfficial.com visited Dortmund earlier this week and it didn’t take us long to realize that TMJ, as he is fondly known, has his fair share of fans amongst club officials of Borussia Dortmund.
JDT established a club partnership with Die Borussen in March 2015 and as far as Carsten Cramer – Dortmund’s Director of Sales and Marketing – is concerned, TMJ’s long-term vision for the club is completely in line with Dortmund’s aspirations of helping football cultures around the world.
“We like Johor DT’s leader [TMJ]. With all the money he has, he could have easily attempted to ‘buy’ success like others in Europe. But he doesn’t want to buy success, he wants to educate the people in in Johor DT,” Cramer said, when we asked him about Tunku Ismail.
“He has a long-term vision for the club and he wants to build a culture. For us, that was a good thing and Dortmund are always willing to help clubs and leaders like that. So we are happy with the Johor partnership.
Since the partnership was established, both sides have initiated plenty of joint-projects, including Gary Steven Robbat’s three-month stint in Dortmund, last year. Der BVB even travelled to Johor, for a pre-season friendly clash against the Southern Tigers, last summer.
Several Dortmund coaches have been also sent to Johor, in a bid to help the Southern Tigers redesign their youth development set-up – though Cramer was quick to insist that they don’t have intentions of poaching JDT’s young talents.
“No, we are not a club that likes doing that. For us, it’s about spreading the Dortmund way of doing things. We are a family here in Dortmund, and we’re just trying to help build the family in Johor. It’s what differentiates us from other clubs in Europe,” he added.
Meanwhile, Dortmund legend Lars Ricken believes that Gary Steven Robbat has every quality needed to succeed as a footballer, with the exception of pace and speed. Check out the full story HERE
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