I was sad and disturbed when i saw the line up for the match :
singapore born: lionel lewis, baihakki, noh rahman, ridhuan
foreign born: precious, bennett, mustafic, wilkinson, shi jiayi, agu, duric
7 foreigners were in the starting 11. what does this show? Singapore lack talented players? to see players such as noh alam shah, indra and even shahril ishak all on the bench, i felt that these players are much more suitable to represent the nation. just look at the difference of the tempo and chances singapore created when the trio came in. 2 out of 3 substitutions were foreigners - precious and duric.
fair enough, we have many players who are out injured namely hariss harun and khairul amri. nevertheless, what does this show of the national team? are we turning into another badminton team filled with foreign talents? yes, duric and wilkinson gained citizenship on their own, the former after years of staying in singapore as a PR while the latter married a singaporean lady.
what i'm trying to point out is that singaporeans are not playing in the first 11 not because we don't have players to play for singapore. in fact we have many. just look at the amateur leagues available in singapore. true enough there are foreigners playing in the league but this certainly shows that singaporeans do have the talent.
then why can't we even fill a team made up of born and bred singaporeans who went thru National Service? the reason is simple.
1) We cannot live in singapore simply by playing soccer. Look at Fandi. he plied his trade overseas and came back only in his late twenties. most of his formative years were spent in the netherlands, indonesia and malaysia where he earned much more. and indra is a police officer who plays for home united. how much can a local earn as compared to a foreign player? a valuable member of the squad might be able to earn maximum 3-3.5k a months while and indispensable player earns up to 5k. a foreign player meanwhile has a starting pay of 5k. what does this show? singaporeans are not as good as foreign players plying their trade in singapore?
with this, singapore loses out on players who have certificates. an ITE graduate who has a NITEC in petrochemical can earn up to 2k as a starting pay. a poly grad might earn more. and what abt a singapore with a deg? his starting pay can vary but for sure there's no cap in salary if u're willing to work hard. a footballer can only earn up to 5k. how bad is that? very.
2) biasness. some coaches are just damn bias towards players. local coaches tend to stick to players who have played for them even though there are better new players in the team. this can be seen even in tertiary level. biasness will only push players out of the team as even if they train well, the coach chose to stick to his own players which i feel is absurd.
i feel that foreigners are good to have as they raise the game of the local league. however, the pay is causing potentially good players not to choose soccer as a profession. FAS might want to raise the bar on the pay for locals. maybe 15k or something? this might entice the majority of singaporeans so choose soccer as a profession in the early years and then start working in their other profession once the hunger to play isn't there anymore.
in this team itself, i believe that we have better crossers than ridhuan, better defenders than precious and of cos better scorers than agu. however, in order for us to reach our peak, we have to train daily. which means we have to turn pro. otherwise, we will nvr play to our utmost ability. at the moment, we are almost 60% developed. and i feel that we can play. many others can play too. it's just that with training, i'm absolutely sure one of us are able to don the singapore colours.
Anyone?
