A LARGER CONVERSATION

He is easily the nation’s most storied athlete whose career started humbly with a pair of football boots his father, a hospital attendant, bought for him on hire purchase. His journey — from selling nasi lemak near his family’s Woodbridge Hospital quarters to earning superstar status as “Singapore’s favourite football son” to playing for Dutch side FC Groningen — is well chronicled and much admired.

Yet what Fandi Ahmad stands for is more — much more — than the sum of all the fascinating details of his story. Sure, local football fans will remember how he — as an exciting, fresh talent — made his successful debut in 1977 as vice-captain of the Singapore Under-16 team that won the Lion City Cup.

They will recall too how he memorably scored the winning goal for Singapore to beat Selangor 2–1 in the 1980 Malaysia Cup final. Then there was his role as captain in 1994 when Singapore earned the much-coveted Malaysian League and Malaysia Cup double.

Faithful fans would have tracked the low points in his career as well — like in 1982 when he gave up an opportunity with Ajax Amsterdam and accepted Indonesian club Niac Mitra’s offer instead.

Still, for a measure of Fandi’s influence, one needs to go deeper than any exhaustive collection of facts. For instance, it is telling that when one looks at his waxwork from iconic Madame Tussauds, one accepts instinctively that the former national captain and current LionsXII coach — of all local sports personalities — is the obvious choice for this sweet nod to posterity. Here, the numbers game is irrelevant and it matters little that the 53-year-old has “at most” a few SEA Games medals compared to other athletes who can boast of more illustrious results from major competitions. The fact is the Fandi Influence ­— positive, exemplary, inspiring — overwhelms everything else. Putting his career in perspective, the former star striker says, “I did not set out to be an example or role model. But, over the years, it is heartening to know that my story has struck a chord in the hearts of Singaporeans. It is my hope that my example can inspire the young to chase their dreams like I did, knowing that they can come true with passion, hard work, devotion and persistence.” Indeed, his is a story about how a young boy, starting with nothing, soared — a sanitised, Singapore version of those quintessentially gritty, zero-to-hero tales involving international football stars like Argentina’s Carlos Tevez, France’s Thierry Henry and Cameroon’s Samuel Eto’o.

It is an instructive story that has made a dent — however slowly — on the stubborn Singapore script of narrow success. The trail blazing tale, way ahead of its time, has since been trotted out for school boys or girls needing courage as they pursue their sporting aspirations. If a simple lad from our tiny island can score those famous goals against Inter Milan in the 1983 UEFA Cup while playing with a Dutch club, who is to say where the limits of the Singapore Dream are? This is a message the football legend has brought home literally — starting with two of his sons, Irfan and Ikhsan Fandi Ahmad, who are pursuing their football dreams training with a Chilean club while studying in Santiago. It is also a message he is driving home as national coach — a role he takes special pride in after stints in Indonesia and Malaysia.

“It’s a privilege to be back serving my own country. In my present capacity, I get to promote football. I also get the chance to help young people with sporting talents realise their potential,” says Fandi, still amazingly without the braggadocio and swagger typical of some football prima donnas.

The development of the young is an issue close to his heart. “I hope we as a society will more and more cultivate all kinds of talents, including sporting ones,” says the former Serangoon Garden Secondary and ITE student. In this way, more young people will find themselves. In their search, the Fandi Ahmad Story will always feature as part of a larger conversation — on youthful promise and on dreams realised bit by bit with focus, commitment and drive.