Sport has been really popular in Cambodia since French
Colonial. Later, Phnom Penh National Olympic was built with a capacity of
48,529 to promote sport development during Sangkum Reastr Niyum
Regime and Cambodian attended many sport competitions bringing back many medals.
Unfortunately, sport was completely destroyed in Pol Pot Regime. Cambodia has
become increasingly involved in sports over the last 30 years after recovering
from zero point. There are many popular sports like football, Sepak Takraw,
Bokator (Labok Kator), Khmer Kickboxing (Pradal Serey), Khmer traditional
wrestling, Volleyball, Taekwondo, and basketball. Among these sports, football
is getting more interests from teenager and middle-aged people in both private
and public sector. Regarding to football, The Cambodian Football Federation is
the governing body in Cambodia controlling the Cambodian national football
team. This federation was founded in 1933 which has been a member of FIFA since
1953 and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) since 1957. There are so many
football matches locally everywhere in the evening as well as in the weekend.
For example, football teams among the same bank or from inter-bank compete with
each other for Financial Challenge Cup including Cambodian and foreigners. Moreover,
more Cambodian overseas makes their presence in Cambodia to better local team
and to challenge for the medals to promote Cambodia internationally; Mr. Chhunly
Pagenburg (born 10 November 1986) is a German football striker of Cambodian descent
and the highest paid athlete (along with Thun Sophea)
from Cambodia
making USD30,000
in 2011. On October 2013, he made two appearances for Cambodia U-23 to play
against Svay Rieng and Phnom Penh
Crown, but he wasn't eligible to play for Cambodia U-23 at Sea Game 2013 because
of overage. He made his senior international debut on 19 November 2013 in a friendly match
against Guam. He will be playing for Cambodia national football team at 2014 AFF Suzuki Cup (22 November to 20 December
2014), the tenth edition of the ASEAN Football Championship Southeast
Asia co-hosted by Singapore and Vietnam. In short, football will be stepping
stone for the better sport development in Cambodia. “Football makes life
harder, but more enjoyable!”
By: Steung Khiev
Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chhunly_Pagenburg
