Rosanan Samak


Haji Mohammad Rosanan bin Abdullah Samak is a Bruneian football coach and former player, who played as a striker most notably with the Brunei team that played in the Malaysian league in the 1990s. He was a member of the team that won the 1999 Malaysia Cup, which is regarded as Brunei football's crowning achievement.

Club and coaching career

Rosanan started his career with the Bruneian team Kota Ranger FC, the team won the domestic championship in 1987 and participated in that year's Asian Champions' Cup. At the turn of the decade, he was selected to play for the Brunei team competing in Liga Semi-Pro Malaysia. His 10-year career with the Wasps culminated in the shock 2-1 win against Sarawak in the final of the 1999 Malaysia Cup. This achievement was chronicled in FIFA 192: The True Story Behind the Legend of Brunei Darussalam National Football Team, a book by British author Stanley Park.
Rosanan left the national representative side in 2000. He returned to Kota Ranger as player-coach a year later, and was also given opportunities to coach Bruneian exhibition sides at the time. He hung up his boots in 2003 and moved to AH United a year later, starting a six-year tenure in which he won the Brunei FA Cup in 2006.
Hired by BAFA as a coach in 2009, Rosanan was assigned various coaching positions since, such as the Brunei Youth Team that played in the domestic league, the Under-21s, and the Under-15s as assistant coach. He was assistant to Kwon Oh-son for the Hassanal Bolkiah Trophy competitions for the U21s in 2012 and 2014.

International career

Rosanan played for Brunei's national team at the 1999 SEA Games held at home, and played all six matches at the 2002 World Cup qualifying campaign without scoring a goal.