Datuk Santokh Singh s/o Gurdial Singh (; born 22 June 1952) is a retired Malaysian football player. His wife is Taljit Kaur and has 3 children, Kiranjeet Kaur, Sukhveer Singh and Rajveer Singh.
Career Overview Born in Setapak, Santokh played in the Selangor FA team from 1972 to 1985, winning 9 Malaysia Cups as captain of the team.
Santokh was a player for Malaysia national football team in the 1970s and 1980s, and played alongside the late Mokhtar Dahari, Soh Chin Aun and R. Arumugam. Santokh was part of Malaysia 1974 Asian Games bronze medalist in Tehran, but did not play in any of the matches due to injury before the start of the tournament.Injury after injury saps our team. - New Straits Times, 14 September 1974. He won the Southeast Asian Games gold medal in 1977 and 1979. He also participated in the team that qualified to the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games, though he never featured in the finals of the tournament due to the Games' boycott by Malaysia.
His partnership with Soh Chin Aun was said to be the most solid defence in the much-feared Malaysian team. In February 1999, Asian Football Confederation recognize Santokh achievement of representing the country 145 times (match including Olympic qualification, against national 'B' football team, club side and selection side), 119 caps is against full national team.Santokh Singh – Century of International Appearances - RSSSF. Thus, Asian Football Confederation include him into the AFC Century Club in 1999.National Library of Singapore.14 EX-INTERNATIONALS INDUCTED INTO AFC CENTURY CLUB - BERNAMA, 11 February 1999. In 2004, he was inducted in Olympic Council of Malaysia's Hall of Fame.
On 17 September 2014, FourFourTwo list him on their list of the top 25 Malaysian footballers of all time.List of 25 Greatest Malaysian Football Players Of All-Time by FourFourTwo—Best FBKL Media. Archived from the original on 17 October 2022. Retrieved 17 October 2022. In 2020, Goal.com had selected him on their list of The best Malaysia XI of all time.
Accolades and legacy In 2011, Santokh was bestowed the honour of the Panglima Mahkota Wilayah by the Yang Dipertuan Agong of Malaysia, which bears the title Datuk. during the occasion of Federal Territory Day. In the same year, the Sultan of Selangor also honoured him with the Order of Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah, carrying the title Dato'.
In 2016, he was the reference for one of the members of Team Malaysia in "Ola Bola".
Career statistics International Scores and results list Malaysia's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each santokh goal. + List of international goals scored by Santokh SinghNo.DateVenueOpponentScoreResultCompetition1Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia—5-11977 Merdeka Tournament2Taegu, South Korea—3-11977 President's Cup Football Tournament3Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia —7-01977 SEA Games4Bangkok, Thailand—1-11980 AFC Asian Cup qualification5Singapore—5-01983 SEA Games6Singapore —3-31984 Summer Olympics - Asian Qualifiers7 —
Honours Orders
Member of the Order of the Defender of the Realm (AMN) (1980)
Commander of the Order of the Territorial Crown (PMW) – Datuk (2011)
Knight Companion of the Order of Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah (DSIS) – Dato' (2011)
See also List of men's footballers with 100 or more international caps List of Sikh footballers
References
External links Profile at selangorfc.com Profile at Olympic Council of Malaysia Sports Museum and Hall of Fame