He wasn’t for everyone, but those who benefitted from his formidable football brain loved him.
As a player, Satiananthan was hard-nosed, often ripping into his own teammates during or after games for their supposed lack of effort.
He was far from short on opinion as a coach and, in fact, impressed many in the game with his brutal honesty.
The Perak-born hardman had a soft spot – mummy’s love. His biggest inspiration was his mother, the late Sarojini Nair, who passed away last year.
Before every game either as coach or player, he would call her and get her blessings.
Satiananthan, one of Malaysian football’s great personalities, died as he lived: a fighter, a champion and a terrific motivator, leaving a stream of emotions and happy memories.
He passed away yesterday of cancer, a day after athletics titan Hanapiah Nasir succumbed to leukaemia. Both were 65.
It has been a sad period for Malaysian sports as former national pole vaulter Aliudin Jumaat and senior athletics official R Govindaraju also died yesterday in Sabah and Perak, respectively.
Razor-sharp hero
One of Satiananthan’s most famous quotes outlined the state of Malaysian football bare in the simplest of terms in 2009.
“M-League is not football,” Satiananthan snapped after Malaysia lost 5-0 to United Arab Emirates in a friendly in Kuala Lumpur. He was sacked as national boss.
He also famously tore into fans and officials, saying, “there is only a head coach before the game but thousands after a game”.
“I’m a guy who likes to speak my mind,” he once said. “It may cause a lot of controversy, but I don’t like to be involved in politics.
“I like to be honest. I am a coach and I don’t like an official who has never kicked a ball to tell me what to do.”
Satiananthan was always in the forefront when it came to unpaid salaries of coaches and players, which he said was a “disgrace and a crime”.
He didn’t just talk, and when he was Armed Forces FC coach, he shared his own pocket money with players who had not been paid their salaries.
His players played for him, and unlike some of his peers, he was skilled at earning the respect of most of the hard-to-handle import players.
As president of the Malaysian Football Coaches Association, he did everything in the best interest of the game, demanding respect and higher salaries for local coaches.
Former national defender Santokh Singh said Satiananthan was one of the rare Malaysian coaches who dared to speak his mind and the truth.
“The game was much bigger than any individual to him. I know many hated him for his guts. Sadly, we don’t have many like him anymore,” he said.
Football great Soh Chin Ann said it was a sad day for Malaysian football “as we have lost a good, honest and truly dedicated football icon”.
“He was always sharp and truthful with his words,” said Chin Ann, who is president of the ex-state and ex-national footballers association.
Commenting on Satiananthan as a player, he said: “We played in opposite teams most times, but you can see he gave his best on the field.
“His deft touches and piercing through balls were always a constant pain for me as a defender.”
Estate beginnings
Satiananthan’s younger brother Naresh said: “My brother was an elegant midfielder, and was skilful with long range passes.
“His speciality was side footing long-range passes, which he did without even controlling the pass he was receiving.
“And he was quite deadly with free kicks from 20ft outside the penalty box.”
Naresh said his eldest brother Sudhaharan and Gobi, the last among them, also played at state and club level.
He said he played striker for the Negeri Sembilan team captained by Satiananthan in the 1980s, “a moment I will cherish forever”.
Left-sided forward Sudhaharan skippered the Johor Burnley Cup team and later turned out for Kuala Lumpur’s Hong Chin club and for University of Malaya, which featured the current defence minister Mohamad Hasan.
Defender Gobi represented Negeri Sembilan in the President Cup tournament, and later came under M Chandran’s Arab-Malaysian squad. Today, he is a Fifa player agent.
At one point, Satiananthan played together with Naresh and Gobi for Negeri Sembilan Indians against Pahang Indians in the Bardhan Cup.
Naresh said they followed in the footsteps of their father, Bhaskran Nair, an estate field supervisor, who was a striker himself.
At age 42, Bhaskran played upfront with Sudhaharan, with Satiananthan, a 16-year-old, playing midfield for the Lanadron Group estate football team at Panchor, Johor.
Satiananthan moved to Seremban to study draughtsmanship and became a mainstay with the George Hendroff-coached Negeri Sembilan Chinese Recreation Club in 1977.
Soon, Paul Nathan drafted him into the Malaysia Cup team, and he went on to be first-choice Harimau Malaya player, earning numerous caps.
Colourful coaching career
As coach, his notable success was in the Merdeka Tournament, guiding the Malaysia under-23 squad to emerge champions in 2007.
Three years later, he guided Kelantan to lift the Malaysia Cup for the first time in 2010, and finished second in the 2010 M-League behind Selangor.
But he was forced to leave Kota Bahru at the start of 2011 after his outspoken comments against the FA of Malaysia earned him a six-month ban.
He then took Armed Forces and Felda United to the Premier League title in 2012 and 2018, respectively.
For his stunning achievements in making underdogs champions, he was named the league’s best coach in those years.
In June last year, he had to take a leave of absence as coach of Sarawak United to undergo medical treatment.
Since his retirement, Satiananthan used his naturally opinionated nature to provide M-League match commentary for television, never afraid to speak his mind.
* The wake for Satiananthan will be from 3pm today at 19, Jalan Panglima Awang 35/120, Alam Impian, Section 35 in Shah Alam.
Funeral prayers will be held at 11am tomorrow before cremation at Nirvana Memorial Park, Shah Alam.