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Fandi’s S’pore U20s relishing first international assignment against Mauritius

SINGAPORE — After suffering a bad injury three years ago and subsequently failing to find a club, playing for Singapore felt like a pipe dream for Joseph Goh.

Joseph Goh (second from left) and Armin Maier (third from left) are two of the players who have been handed the chance to don national colours by Fandi Ahmad. Photo: Football Association of Singapore

Joseph Goh (second from left) and Armin Maier (third from left) are two of the players who have been handed the chance to don national colours by Fandi Ahmad. Photo: Football Association of Singapore

 

SINGAPORE — After suffering a bad injury three years ago and subsequently failing to find a club, playing for Singapore felt like a pipe dream for Joseph Goh.

But the centre-back has found a second chance with the national Under-20 squad headed by Fandi Ahmad, the Football Association of Singapore's Head Coach for Youth, and will get the opportunity to don the Lions jersey when they travel to play Mauritius’ Under-21s in a friendly on March 11.

Players like Goh, who are not contracted to any local S.League clubs or in the National Football Academy (NFA) set-up, have been recruited by Fandi for the U20s in his bid to broaden the base of local football.

Goh was recommended to Fandi through ex-international Rafi Ali, his coach at the Republic Polytechnic (RP) football team, having last experienced club football in Balestier Khalsa’s Centre of Excellence (COE) Under-16 team.

“When I broke my leg, I wanted to leave football,” the 19-year-old recalled on the sidelines of the announcement at Jalan Besar Stadium on Thursday (Mar 2) evening. “I was on trial with Geylang (International) before this and I am playing at RP currently.

“I am really very honoured to be in this team and it’s a really good opportunity to come back into the national team, especially with me club-less for three years. 

“I am really very excited to play my first international game and get my first cap.”

Fandi also afforded midfielder Armin Maier the opportunity to turn out for the team after recruiting the Singapore-born 19-year-old from Germany, where he migrated to at five.

Maier, born to a German father and Singaporean mother, was studying and also playing for semi-professional side FC 07 Albstadt in the sixth tier of German football before being brought to Fandi’s attention, again through Rafi.

“Through Rafi Ali, whom my mother is distantly related to, I got to know Mr Fandi Ahmad and he asked me to come to Singapore and play with this team three months ago,” Maier said.

“I knew the chance to play for the national team is higher here, so I chose to come here and represent my mum’s country.”

Both players related how they have been enjoying training under Fandi and dream of eventually turning out for the senior Lions in future.

“Training is very good as you can learn a lot from him (Fandi) as he is very experienced,” Maier said.

“He’s a no-nonsense guy on the field, very professional, and I give my all in training,” Goh added. “Definitely, I wish to play for the senior national team but I can’t just say (it) - I have to put in the hard work in training.”

Fandi is “very excited” for his squad ahead of their first international fixture, which was arranged to showcase the relationship between both countries and is part of the activities to commemorate Mauritius’ 49th Independence Day on March 12.

“We don’t know how good they are but I heard they are a very strong team,” he said. “Half of our team will be from the U20s (training under me) and the rest from the clubs; 20 players will travel.”

There are around 30 players training with the team now and Fandi hopes to trim that to 20 to 25 by the end of March, before inviting players who are from clubs to join in and make the team stronger. Players have to prove their worth too, as they are subject to review every three months.

“If they want to be here, they have to work very hard,” he asserted. “We told them at the end of the day, we don’t select the players - they select themselves.”

The former Singapore striker acknowledged that it had been a “very difficult” task identifying talent outside of the club system and nurturing them to make the step up, but is heartened by their progress.

“We’ve played about seven (friendly) matches, some were good, some not so good… but lately, we have been doing very well,” said Fandi, who has former Lions Nazri Nasir and S. Subramani as assistants. 

“You can see the improvement after one and a half months. We are very happy and we acknowledge that we have found some good players in those not playing for clubs or the NFA.

“We don’t worry about winning or losing, but more importantly we want to see whether they improve, whether they can play at the highest level.”

*The friendly between Mauritius Under-21 and Singapore Under-20 will be played at the New George V Stadium in Mauritius. The match will kick off at 7p.m Singapore time and will be streamed online.

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