Thailand Football triumphs at the 2014 Asean Football Championship on Saturday night is the latest and most compelling evidence underlining the fact that former national striker Kiatisak Senamuang is the man the country has long searched for to bring back the glory days to Thai football.

Few could have predicted when Thailand last won the region’s showpiece tournament in 2002 its third title in the first four times the biennial event was held that the country would have to wait more than a decade to taste success again.

Whether that was the result of poor management at the Thai FA or the failure to replenish the squad with a new generation of players, it was a long barren run for a country once widely regarded as the undisputed top team in Southeast Asia. And it coincided with Thailand plummeting down the Fifa rankings.

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