(CNN) -- He rose from humble beginnings, worked his way through the local leagues before graduating to become a major player on the international stage, netting him millions of dollars along the way.
But this isn't a tale about a footballing hero. This is a story about one of modern sport's greatest villains -- the man dubbed the most notorious match-fixer in the world.
You may not be familiar with the name Wilson Raj Perumal but given how prolific he was, you might have watched one of the games he's fixed.
"I never really counted, but I think it should be between 80-100 football matches," Perumal told CNN's Don Riddell in his first-ever television interview.
Few doors seemed to be closed to Perumal.
"I was on the bench at times, and telling players what to do, giving orders to the coach. It was that easy. There was no policing whatsoever."
Officials were just as easy to target, he boasts, with "no barriers" when approaching select referees, while certain football associations would "welcome you with open arms," he added.
It was only after his arrest and subsequent conviction in 2011 -- his fourth for football-related crimes - - that Perumal started coming clean on his former life, with the poacher-turned-gamekeeper now helping European police combat match-fixing.
In all, Perumal claims to have pocketed around $5 million himself from match-fixing.
However, he lost it all gambling, perhaps explaining why the 49-year-old recently published an autobiography, "Kelong Kings," recounting his journey from rural Singapore to football's globetrotting Mr Fix-it.
Can you imagine some dude picking a future NFL game 2 months from now... and making it fixed. Making sure everyone is in tune with what's going on. By the time we'd figured out it was fixed... it would be years from that said date. Masterpiece theater.
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Originally Posted by Vaughany
