MEET COACH OLTMANS – THE BOSS WHO ISN’T BOSSY

Oltmans owns his title without airs and feels at home in Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia hockey coach Roelant Oltmans has only been in the country for almost two months – but he can’t help but feel that he’s the boss.

That’s because everywhere he goes, people call him “boss”.

The 64-year-old Dutchman said that he’s surprised by how often he is addressed that way by the courteous people here.

“I didn’t know that Malaysian people like using the word boss. The Malaysian culture is unique as regardless of one’s position, occupation or relationship, they have their own special way of calling each other using the word boss,” said Oltmans.

“It feels nice when people call me boss. “It also feels nice that people in Malaysia know who I am.

“I feel like I’m a boss in Malaysia,” said Oltmans.

“I like Malaysia very much as the people here are very friendly and I love the multicultural society in Malaysia.

“It’s easy to communicate with the people here and I feel like I’m in my own country.

“It’s also easy to drive down to Kuala Lumpur on Sunday as there’s not much traffic compared to when I was coaching in India,” said Oltmans.

“It can take hours to go from one place to another in India. But in Malaysia, it’s so easy to move around.

“I also enjoy the variety of food in Malaysia. “It’s delicious and you have many choices of Malay, Chinese and Indian food,” said Oltmans.

“I went to Pertama Complex last weekend and people from all over Asia were shopping in the mall.

“I also went to Mid Valley Megamall and the atmosphere there was totally different than in Pertama Complex as Mid Valley is for people of higher society compared to Pertama Complex.

“But I like both these malls,” added Oltmans.

He has 29 years coaching experience and his first major victory was guiding the Holland women’s team – which he coached from 1989 to 1993 – to World Cup success in Sydney in 1990.

In 1993, he took charge of the Dutch men’s team and guided them to the gold medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics after defeating Spain 3-1 in the final.

In 1998 he led the Holland men’s team to a World Cup triumph in Utrecht, Holland.

Oltmans then ventured into football, becoming the technical director of NAC Breda until 2002. He was appointed Pakistan coach for the 1994 Athens Olympics and he held the position until the end of 2004.

In 2005, he returned as coach of the Holland men’s team until the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

In 2013, he joined India as the High Performance manager and two years later he was appointed India’s national coach until the end of 2017.

Oltmans returned to Pakistan as the chief coach in March this year but he quit after they failed to finish on the podium at the Asian Games in Jakarta in September.

He was appointed chief coach of the Malaysian team on Oct 1 and his task is to help Malaysia qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Oltmans has a two-year contract and his main task now is to help Malaysia finish in the top 10 in the World Cup starting today at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar, India.