As a Singaporean, I loved success as much as anyone. I think it is great that Singapore got into the third round of the Asian World Cup qualifiers. I watch it live on TV and as the ball was passed around in midfield by Singapore…I wonder if I can still call it Singapore?
This is how the question came about. As the ball was passing around in the midfield, the commentator said something to the effect of “John Wilkinson to Alex Duric to Shi Jia Yi to Mustafic Fahrudin to Daniel Bennett.” 4 passes, 5 players, and not a Singapore-born player among them.
In case anyone doesn’t know yet, Daniel Bennett and John Wilkinson are from England; Shi Jiayi is from China; Mustafic Fahrudin from Serbia and Duric is a former Australian born in Bosnia. Add them to Precious Emuejeraye and Agu Casmir from Nigeria and I have to wonder; is this Singapore or Singapore FA. I mean if you take out Fazrul Nawaz on the left, the whole of the midfield are foreigners.
I understand success is important and I love victory as much as the next Singapore. But let be honest here; it’s not Singapore 2 Lebanon 0, but the Singapore FA 2 Lebanon 0.
2 comments:
Well, isn't it the same with France when they won the World Cup in 1998. They too had many foreign imports in that team.
Let's face it. Very soon, whatever Cup will become meaningless because every team will have non-native players in their line-ups to ensure success of winning.
France is a different case as all their players are trained in France. Would Zizou be the greatest player in the world if he hadn't went to France when he was around 10? I don't think so. That's the case for all their players as they went to France when they were young and the French training system made them great. Outside Daniel Bennett, all the other players on our team came made already. You can't compare Singapore to France. It's not even close
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