Local teen footballer Marc embarks on England stint

SINGAPORE — He first came to prominence as one of the stars of the 2014 Gothia Cup — regarded as the world’s largest youth tournament — as he helped Singapore’s F-17 academy achieve a third-place finish out of 120 teams in the Under-11 category.

And last November, Marc Ryan Tan, the son of Singapore’s Malaysia Cup hero Steven Tan, made his mark again during a local training camp conducted by West Ham’s academy coaches.

The 14-year-old made such a positive impression on the visiting coaches that he was invited to train with the English Premier League outfit’s academy in London this week.

The West Ham academy, which has produced players such as Rio Ferdinand, Michael Carrick and Frank Lampard, has been given a Category One status under the Premier League’s Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP), which puts them among the top 20 academies in England.

While in England, Marc will also train at three other English academies – Wolverhampton Wanderers (Category One), Stoke City (Category One) and Charlton Athletic (Category Two) – during the 10-day training tour, which is organised by United States-based sports management company Global Image Sports (GIS).

The teenager, who can play as a forward or on the wings, is the only local player out of four others from the F-17 academy who was shortlisted for this tour.

Speaking to TODAY ahead of the training tour, Marc said that he hopes to use this opportunity to improve himself as a player.

In addition, he hopes to impress the coaches, and any watching scouts, as he works towards his dream of earning a professional contract with a top European team in future.

“I want to go there to learn how the English kids play because I’ve never played with the European kids before,” said the Secondary 2 student at the Singapore Sports School (SSP). “It’ll be interesting to see their style of play, observe how they train and find out why they’re so good at football.

“Hopefully I can go there, improve myself and bring something back with me so that I can share my experience with my SSP team-mates and make the team stronger.

“I’m very excited for this tour and I’m confident of making an impact there. After all, my dream is to one day playing for a top European team so this will be a great chance for me to get clubs to notice me.”

His dad Steven, affectionately known as “Super Sub” when he was part of Lions’ famous 1994 Malaysia Cup-winning team, said this tour will give Marc an indication of where he stands against some of the top young talents in the world.

“At this stage of his career, it’s good for him to know where he stands at an international level,” said Steven, who is now a coach at the ActiveSg Football Academy. “He can only do that by going up against players of a higher standard. In England, the level of football there is very high.

“So I want him to go there and test himself against those boys. Hopefully, he can rise up to the challenge and meet the standard that they’re looking for.”

Steven added that he will not hesitate to send Marc overseas for the long-term if the right opportunity comes knocking.

This mirrors what fellow local football icon Fandi Ahmad has done for his sons Irfan, Ikhsan and Ilhan – the former two trained in Chile for over two years, while Ilhan is expected to head to England this week.

“Of course, I would love for Marc to train in England for the long-term, and get a school to study there as well, because it will help his football development immensely,” said Steven.

“But it’s not easy to get a permit to play in the UK, so we have to see if the F-17 or GIS can help us with the procedure and see how we can work around it.

“Unlike in my time (as players), the kids now have more opportunities to play overseas, and so we must expose them as much as we can. Going to Europe, there’ll be more people watching Marc play, so we need him to take this step and get out of his comfort zone and see how far he can develop as a player.”

Marc, accompanied by his father, departed for England on Monday (Oct 10) night. The expenses of the trip for Marc, which is expected to reach up to S$7,000, will largely be borne by the F-17 Academy.