Did You Know That Our Striker N. Thanabalan Helped Malaysia Beat Myanmar In 1968 AND 2017?

On Monday, our national football team faced off against Myanmar in order to qualify for the semi-final rounds of the 2017 KL SEA Games football tournament. The epic match took place at Stadium Shah Alam where thousands of spectators rooted for our Harimau Malaya squad.

We came out of the match victorious after beating Myanmar 3-1, thanks to goals by N. Thanabalan (33’ and 82’) and Safawi Rasid (35’).

Here's where things get weird

Today, we at Rojak Daily encountered an interesting discovery, one we think will really blow your mind.

According to The Edge journalist Mohsin Abdullah, a Malaysian striker played an instrumental part in helping Malaysia beat Burma in the final of the Merdeka Tournament in 1968.

The striker's name is - surprise, surprise! - N. Thanabalan!

(Cue The X-Files theme song)

N.Thanabalan did not score during the final match against Burma in 1968, but he did score a total of eight goals in six matches to help Malaysia qualify for the finals.

For something so extraordinary coincident, there's no way that the story is real, right? A quick search we did revealed that the match did take place in 1968, and N.Thanabalan actually played against Burma. You can read about it here.

Now, here's where things get weirder: both of them even have the same last name – Nadarajah!

So, did N.Thanabalan really hop into a time machine and travel to 2017 in a younger form to help Malaysia beat Myanmar on Monday?

As eerie as it sounds, N.Thanabalan Sr was born in 1943 and made his football debut in 1960, while N.Thanabalan Jr was born in 1995 and made his debut in 2013.

N.Thanabalan Sr is seen as some sort of a national hero as he represented Malaysian numerous times in the international arena – the Merdeka Tournament, SEAP Games, Asian Games, Kings Cup in Thailand, Vietnam Cup and he even played against Arsenal in a friendly match.

Who knows, maybe one day we can help N.Thanabalan Jr meet N.Thanabalan Sr and watch them play some footie.

Now, that would definitely go down as one of the most epic face-off in sporting history, no?