A wide smile spreads across Luis Garcia’s face.
“We are almost there — almost,” Garcia tells The Athletic.
He is discussing the 105-game unbeaten run in the Malaysian Super League, dating back to April 2021, achieved by his club Johor Darul Ta’zim (JDT).
The 47-year-old former Barcelona, Liverpool and Atletico Madrid midfielder has been JDT’s chief executive officer for just over a year. According to football data site RSSSF, they are three matches away from equalling the longest stretch without defeat ever in league football worldwide — 108, by ASEC Mimosas of the Ivory Coast between 1989 and 1994.
With only three fixtures left in their 2025-26 league campaign, however, they would have to wait until the first match of next season to break that record, if they can manage to do so.
Sitting in a hotel room in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Garcia’s focus is elsewhere for the time being as, when he speaks to The Athletic by video call just over a week ago, JDT are on the eve of facing Saudi Pro League side Al Ahli in the quarter-finals of the Asian Champions League. It is the first time JDT have reached this stage of that competition.
Al Ahli are one of the teams owned and funded by Saudi Arabia’s state Public Investment Fund and have ex-Premier League forwards in Riyad Mahrez (Leicester City and Manchester City) and Ivan Toney (Brentford) as well as former Milan and Barcelona midfielder Franck Kessie in their ranks.
“Our budget is almost £14million ($18.9m) and it works out compared to their budget at around a 12-to-one ratio,” says Garcia. “That shows the massive gap. You have to compete differently.
“We have managed to arrive at a point that is historic for the club. It’s a really special moment. We feel proud and honoured to be in the top eight. Only two teams in South-east Asia have done it this time.”
The following day’s game proved to be a step too far for Garcia and company.
JDT took the lead via Ali Majrashi’s early own goal, but strikes from Kessie and Brazilian winger Galeno helped Al Ahli turn the tie around, winning 2-1 despite playing for over 50 minutes with 10 men. They went on to beat Vissel Kobe of Japan by the same scoreline in the semi-finals three days later and will meet Machida Zelvia, another Japanese club, in Saturday’s final.
It was early in 2025 when Garcia received a phone call from Kiko Insa, JDT’s sporting director, and a meeting was arranged with the club’s owner, His Royal Highness Major General Tunku Ismail ibni Sultan Ibrahim, The Regent of Johor. He is heir to the throne of the ruling family of the Malaysian state of Johor, which is located in the south of the Malay Peninsula, directly opposite Singapore across the Straits of Johor.
Garcia had spent almost a decade since he retired from playing in 2016 working in TV as well as serving in ambassadorial roles for Liverpool, Barcelona and European football’s governing body UEFA.
“I didn’t know what I was going to do with my life, but I made sure I was prepared,” the Spaniard says.
Luis Garcia and Xabi Alonso in November 2024 (Richard Sellers/Sportsphoto/Allstar via Getty Images)
He completed his coaching and sporting-director licences, but the business side of football interested him more. He did a two-year Master’s in Business Administration with UEFA, while a position to work at Barcelona was offered at one point, but the timing wasn’t right.
There have been coaching opportunities in Mexico and India. Even after starting at JDT, Garcia says he had a chance to work as a manager at the highest level. The pressure that comes with being a coach without being able to physically impact the game was something that didn’t appeal. Garcia says: “There was always something about that I didn’t like.”
The opportunity he was offered at JDT did pique his interest. The club were established in 2013 after the prince, who had become president of Johor FA the previous year, merged Johor FC and Johor FA.
Success soon followed, and this season JDT have sealed their 12th league title in a row. With those three games to go, they sit 18 points clear.
JDT already won this season’s Malaysia FA Cup (their fifth) in December, and can add the Malaysia Cup (they are in the final) and multi-nation Shopee Cup (a two-leg semi-final against Buriram United of Thailand begins on May 6) next month. The club are No 1 in Opta’s South-east Asia power rankings, although their success is no doubt helped by having the biggest budget in Malaysian football.
They opened the state-of-the-art Sultan Ibrahim Stadium in Johor in 2020 and attracted crowds between 15,000 and 23,000 for domestic games, and more than 27,000 for Champions League matches. Alongside their 105-game unbeaten run in the league is a 144-match streak without defeat in all domestic competitions, which began in November 2021.
Garcia, right, with Kiko and the Malaysia FA Cup (OfficialJohor)
The success has not come without controversy, though. The club were caught up in an issue this season surrounding the Malaysian FA after seven players, three of whom play for JDT, were handed 12-month bans for falsifying documents which made them eligible to play for the country’s national team.
At a press conference in October 2025, following the initial ruling, the prince said: “When it comes to details and technicalities, I was not involved. That is why FAM (Malaysian FA) is still fighting this, because every document is legitimate. Everything can be verified by the government. There may have been a technical mistake when handing the documents in, but it’s not forgery,” he said. The Athletic contacted JDT for comment.
Earlier this month, after an investigation by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), JDT were cleared of any wrongdoing and allowed to continue to play in the Shopee Cup.
Garcia played in Spain and England before finishing his career with spells in Greece, Mexico, India and Australia. It has given him a broad knowledge.
Post-retirement, he has been part of three pre-season tours with Liverpool. He used that time to pick the brains of the club’s chief executive officers, listening and studying how Ian Ayre, Peter Moore and the role’s current occupant Billy Hogan conducted business and managed responsibilities.
More recently, he has been in contact with Liverpool’s chief commercial officer Ben Latty and Oscar Mayo, who has the same role at Atletico Madrid.
“I’ve been very lucky to have people around who I can speak to,” Garcia says. “That’s the best way that you can add things. Seeing what has been done, learning from people working here and then seeing what I can bring to the table. We are always talking about raising standards.”
He has a good relationship with JDT’s first-team manager Xisco Munoz, a fellow Spaniard who previously had spells in charge of Watford, delivering Premier League promotion in 2021, and Sheffield Wednesday in England. JDT are set to play around 60 games this season across all competitions this season, and Garcia quickly realised the demands such a schedule places on their squad.
“In pre-season, the coaching staff were discussing the players they were going to need for the five competitions,” says Garcia. “I thought a squad of 25, but they told me, ‘No, we need 35 to 37’. I realised it’s true, there is no way you can survive because of the travel distances, potential injuries, it’s impossible.”
The 18-time Spain international made 587 appearances across his ca,reer and while at Liverpool won the Champions League in 2005 and the FA Cup the following season.
Garcia won the 2004-05 Champions League with Liverpool (John D McHugh/AFP via Getty Images)
Garcia divides his time between Malaysia and a home in Spain. He still plays seven-a-side with his friends every Saturday morning and continues to represent the Liverpool Legends side. His passion for the game is as strong as ever.
“When I was watching our players training yesterday, I was near the side of the pitch — every single time that the ball comes around, there is that special feeling, and it’s something that I will always have,” says Garcia.
“I feel I can help. I’ve been in their situation. I know the feelings and emotions. I try to help young players to manage emotions in pressure situations.”
JDT have partnerships and relationships with some of Europe’s leading clubs, including Borussia Dortmund, Juventus and Paris Saint-Germain.
“We have our own ideas, but you check what the best teams in the world are doing and that should be our standard,” says Garcia. “We went to PSG’s academy and they were growing their own vegetables (for the players’ meals) in an allotment. It’s a crazy example, but you see things and think about implementing them.”
JDT and Garcia want to grow football in Malaysia and propel it onto the international stage. He hopes other teams can take inspiration and says fellow Malaysia Super League sides Kuching City, Selangor and Kuala Lumpur City have all taken steps forward this year.
A key part of that is the club’s state-of-the-art academy, which is the only full-time professional academy in the country and comprises teams from under-12 level to under-23s.
JDT’s senior squad contains a variety of nationalities, but developing Malaysian players is at the forefront of their vision. Garcia beams when talking about the 11 trophies won by their teams from under-18 to under-23 this season and the conveyor belt of talent.
Garcia graduated from Barcelona’s famed La Masia academy and praises chief operating officer and technical director Alistair Edwards, a former Australia international, and academy director Javier Jorda for the structure they have put in place.
The jewel in the JDT academy’s crown is 23-year-old Arif Aiman, who Garcia can’t wait to talk about – “He is so quick, so many skills, that ability to go one-on-one. He has no fear”. The attacker is a three-time Malaysia Most Valuable Player and is being watched by clubs elsewhere in Asia and in Europe.
Garcia is only 12 months into a five-year contract, and his enthusiasm to be part of JDT’s future is evident.
“It has been a beautiful journey,” he says. “The aim is to keep getting better.”