KUALA LUMPUR, June 29 -- To see your favourite player in the World Cup is great. Seeing a player you used to train playing at the highest level of football? That is just priceless.

This is exactly how two Malaysian private football academy coaches, Chris Nathan Firdausi and Shazwan Wong, felt after seeing 18-year-old Hamza Abdelkarim make his debut for Egypt at the World Cup.

"We're very fortunate to share that experience with him - it's not like we could foresee him being a World Cup player 10 years on, we couldn't say that but yes, I was very fortunate to have coached him when he was eight years old.

"To see someone we actually know on the World Cup stage, the feeling is different lah.

"You can't describe that, this is a first-time ...