Fifty days after losing to Mongolia, Kiki Foo is moving there to play
The Malaysia forward becomes the first woman from her country to sign abroad as an Asian import, joining a Mongolian team that just snapped the champions’ 616-day unbeaten run. (Photo: MABA)
On Sept. 22 in Nagoya, Malaysia needed to beat Mongolia to stay alive at the Asian Games.
Foo Suet Ying, who goes by Kiki, played 32 minutes and finished with 11 points, five rebounds and three assists. It wasn’t enough. Mongolia, with naturalized player Amari Robinson in the lineup, won 89-81, and Malaysia left Japan without a win in three games.
It was the second time in three years Foo had faced Mongolia. The first one went her way: at the 2023 FIBA Women’s Asia Cup Division B, she had 17 points and seven rebounds in an 85-68 Malaysia win.
One win, one loss. Back then, Mongolia was just another opponent. It wasn’t somewhere she pictured starting a professional career.
Fifty days after Nagoya, that’s where she’s going. Foo, who is from Semenyih in Selangor and turns 26 later this month, has signed with the Etugen Panthers of Mongolia’s women’s national league as an Asian import. No Malaysian woman had joined a foreign professional league as an import before.
“Honestly, I didn’t hesitate at all,” Foo said. “My first instinct was that I wanted to take on this challenge.”
The one that got away
This wasn’t her first shot at playing abroad.
In March 2025, a Filipino agent reached out to her after a veteran Malaysian journalist made the introduction. He wanted to put her forward for a team in Australia’s NBL1, the semi-professional competition below the WNBL. The team signed a Filipino player instead.
“I had thought about it. Playing professionally overseas has always been one of my goals,” she said. “I just never thought the day would actually come.”
More than a year later, it did, and this time the offer came from Mongolia.
The Panthers gave an agent a shortlist of three players. Foo was one of them. The agent rated her overall game above the other two and recommended her to the club. Her contract runs through the end of the season.
“My first reaction was excitement, and surprise,” she said. “I never expected I’d really get the chance to play pro basketball abroad. It’s a rare opportunity, so I was genuinely happy, and I’m looking forward to seeing where it goes.”
Both chances came because someone vouched for her: a media veteran the first time, an agent who knew her game the second. Being good enough is only part of it for players like Foo. Someone still has to get her name to a team that needs a player. Her experience suggests those introductions are hard to come by.
Asked what the biggest obstacle is for Malaysian women chasing overseas contracts, Foo didn’t claim to know.
“This is my first overseas pro contract, so I don’t have much experience yet, and I can’t really say what the biggest difficulty is,” she said. “I think I need to go through it myself before I really understand.”
She does believe that opportunity favors the prepared.
Winning at home and abroad
Foo has represented Malaysia since her youth-team days.
At 5-foot-9 (176 cm), she is a versatile frontcourt player. She can rebound and defend around the basket, then step out and shoot 3s, which gives a coach plenty of ways to use her.
She played at the 2015 FIBA U16 Women’s Asian Championship and the 2016 U18 edition, then worked her way onto the senior national team.
She has three Southeast Asian Games bronze medals. The first two came in 5-on-5, at the 2021 Games in Vietnam (held in 2022) and the 2023 Games in Cambodia.
At last year’s Games in Thailand, she played both 5-on-5 and 3×3. In 3×3, Foo and her teammates beat Vietnam 21-20 for her third bronze, putting Malaysia’s women back on the 3×3 podium for the first time since the 2019 Games in the Philippines.
The 5-on-5 team reached the semifinals but lost 62-55 to Indonesia in the bronze-medal game and finished fourth. In the semifinal, a 59-51 loss to host Thailand, Foo led Malaysia with 18 points and hit four 3-pointers, a reminder of what she adds from the perimeter.
At home, she has won the Agong’s Cup, Malaysia’s national inter-state championship, with two different states, and she was named MVP both times.
In 2024, playing for Johor, she helped beat Negeri Sembilan 56-53 in the title-deciding final round. It was Johor’s first women’s title in nine years and ended Negeri Sembilan’s run of four straight. Foo was named tournament MVP.
In October, at the 66th Agong’s Cup, she was playing for Negeri Sembilan and met Johor in the final again. Negeri Sembilan won 82-25. Foo had 18 points and four rebounds and was named MVP of the final. She also won the 3×3 title with Negeri Sembilan.
Between the SEA Games, the Asia Cup and Nagoya, she has more than a decade of international experience, and she has proven herself at the top of Malaysia’s domestic game.
Now she gets to test herself at a different level, in a professional league abroad.
From fourth place to beating the champions
The Etugen Panthers, known in Mongolian as Etugen Irvesuud (“irvesuud” means snow leopard), are affiliated with Etugen University and play in Mongolia’s women’s national league.
The league had six teams last season. The Panthers went 6-9 to finish fourth, then were swept 4-0 in the semifinals by the Ulaanbaatar Amazons, who went 15-0 in the regular season and won the title.
That leads back to Nagoya. Robinson, the naturalized player who suited up for Mongolia at the Asian Games, was one of the Amazons’ key players last season and helped eliminate the Panthers in that series.
This season has started differently. On Nov. 8, three days before Foo’s departure, the Panthers beat the defending champions 109-105 in overtime, ending the Amazons’ 616-day unbeaten streak. The Panthers are 2-1.
Where Foo fits in is still unclear. She admits she doesn’t know much about the league yet. The team hasn’t talked through her role in detail, and her debut date isn’t set.
“Once I get to Mongolia, I hope I can build chemistry with the coaches and my teammates quickly and adapt to how the team plays,” she said. “My debut is up to the team.”
Mongolian winters regularly sit below freezing, which is about as far from Malaysia’s climate as it gets. This is also her first time playing professionally abroad as an import.
None of that made her hesitate.
“I’ve always wanted the chance to go abroad, experience a different life and learn new things,” she said. “I don’t think athletes can stay in their comfort zone. When the chance comes, you have to be brave and try, so you keep growing.”
She wants to improve her individual skills, gain game experience and sharpen her decision-making.
“I also want to learn from the good parts of the basketball culture there, see how other countries train and think about the game, and become a more complete player.”
A birthday in Mongolia
Foo left for Mongolia at noon on Nov. 11. Two weeks later, on Nov. 24, she’ll turn 26 there.
Is there anything she’ll miss about Malaysia?
“Not really,” she said. “I think life is about having the courage to chase your dreams. Now that I have this chance, I should make the most of it.”
Fifty days ago, she lost to Mongolia in Nagoya.
This season, she’ll pull on a Mongolian jersey.
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