Singapore football freestylers put on a show in Portugal

SINGAPORE — When they were both budding youth footballers plying their trade in the Prime League more than 10 years ago, Terence Ong and Terry Lee harboured ambitions of one day playing in a packed stadium for a prestigious European club.

While Ong’s and Lee’s footballing careers were eventually cut short by injuries, they were still able to realise their long-held dream, albeit in a slightly different way, yesterday at the Estadio Jose Alvalade — home of top Portuguese football club Sporting CP.

But instead of stepping onto the pitch of the 51,000-capacity venue as footballers, Ong and Lee did so as professional football freestylers.

In front of more than 33,000 fans who had turned up to watch Sporting take on Chaves in the top tier of the Portuguese league, the two Singaporeans put on a high-energy performance that saw them executing various fancy tricks involving flicking, juggling, heading and spinning a football.

The routine, which was performed just before the start of the match, lasted only three minutes.

But for Ong and Lee, it was a surreal experience that they will treasure for the rest of their lives.

Speaking to TODAY from Portugal more than 10 hours after their act, Ong was still buzzing as he recounted what it was like performing in front of their largest-ever audience.

The 31-year-old said: “The experience is something that money can’t buy … it was out of this world.

“It’s extra special to be doing all this in front of an audience of football fans. You can see they have such fire, passion and love for football and so they were able to appreciate what we were doing.

“They gave us a fantastic reception, cheering us on right from the time we started, and that helped us get extra pumped and hyped up while we were performing.

“It feels even better to know that we’re representing Singapore on such a (big) stage and, in a way, bringing recognition to our country.”

However, Ong and Lee, who are known for being pioneers in the football freestyling community, were initially not scheduled to perform at all.

The duo are in Portugal on a learning trip at the famed Sporting CP academy — which has produced the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Luis Figo and Nani — in order to prepare for their role as the head coaches of the new Sporting CP Singapore football academy.

They had arrived in Lisbon just last weekend, and it was only when a Sporting CP official involved in the matchday programme realised Ong and Lee were at the club that they were invited to put on a performance as part of the pre-match entertainment.

It may have been a stroke of good fortune that led to them performing on such a big stage, but Ong believes that it vindicates all the time and hard work they have put in over the years to hone their craft.

“For the past eight years of so, we’ve worked extremely hard to get to where we are, and being given this opportunity and experience is a reward for us,” he said.

“We hope this inspires others to keep plugging away to reach their dreams. We may not have made it as footballers, but we managed to make it to the big stage as freestylers, and it’s definitely a huge achievement for us.”

Now that their moment in the spotlight is over, both Ong and Lee will be spending the next two weeks undergoing several technical courses at the Sporting Academy.