The midfielder is one of Singapore’s most exciting prospects and he’s determined to make a name for himself both domestically and abroad
“My size will not stop me from succeeding.”
It could have been Lionel Messi saying it. Or either of his former Barcelona team-mates Andres Iniesta or Xavi.
But it’s not.
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Instead, it’s Lion City Sailors star Saifullah Akbar making it clear that he will not let his stature get in the way of fulfilling his lofty ambitions.
Standing just 1.65m tall, the gifted midfielder may be smaller than the average player, but with a fiery determination and unrelenting attitude, one wouldn’t bet against him realising his dream of representing juggernauts of European football in the coming years.
Courtesy of his father Akbar Nawas’ relationship with the game, the 22-year-old has been in love with football ever since he was a child.
“I started playing football when I was five. I remember my dad brought me to a street soccer court to play with the older boys,” Saifullah said in an exclusive interview with Goal.
“A coach from Five Star Academy saw me and started to have interest in me. He started training me, making me kick the balls against the walls and all that. I joined his academy and trained there until primary school.”
The playmaker first grabbed the wider football fraternity’s attention at the tender age of 14, while playing at the Asian Youth Games.
Together with Ikhsan Fandi, he helped Singapore clear the qualifying stage in quite remarkable fashion- the Lions grabbed a 1-1 draw against Asian giants China, and then won the second leg 2-1 with Ikhsan scoring the winner. Saifullah, meanwhile, scored in each of the qualifying legs.
Having seen Saifullah’s potential, the Football Association of Singapore and Singapore Sports School sent him for a fully-funded training camp to France for two weeks.
“My first trip to Europe was to Metz. The Technical Director saw me when I was in Singapore. He’s the one that told me that he wanted to bring me to Metz,” the diminutive midfielder remarked.
“At that time, Sports School and FAS helped me because I think Adam Swandi just signed a contract with Metz and they wanted someone to try to follow his footsteps. Thankfully I got the opportunity. It was a different kind of experience. When I was there, everyone stayed in bunks and I stayed in the same room as Adam.
« It was really a good experience because the French people train like they are in the war, even at training. After all, every one of them wants a spot. It’s a really big club and a lot of players are trying to fight for spots. So every training session goes hard.
“It was overall a good experience. But I didn’t get to do much in Metz. I went out alone just to walk to the town area. I couldn’t just stay at the bunk the whole day. I was just training and I got nothing else to do. I went for some French lessons, but they only lasted for a couple of hours.
« They offered me to play for the Metz side, but I think something didn’t work out. I didn’t know what didn’t work out as I was quite young at that time, so I came back.”
A year later, the playmaker got to rub shoulders with stars from English side Queen’s Park Rangers for 10 days as he was one of three young players that were selected by the QPR management to train with them in the United Kingdom.
Arguably the highlight of his youth career was playing in the Lion City Cup, though, which included featuring in a match against a Liverpool Under-15 side containing the likes of Curtis Jones, who now features in their first team.
Leading Singapore’s U-16 side in August 2015, Saifullah set up a thriller against the Reds. Singapore came back from 3-0 down to level the score at 3-3 against a star-studded Liverpool side, with Saifullah providing the assist for Ikhsan’s equaliser. Unfortunately for Saifullah and his team-mates, the Reds eventually triumphed in the penalties 5-3.
Next up was an adventure with Australian club Newcastle Jets FC in 2015, although Fifa regulations prevented Saifullah from making the move on a permanent basis.
“After the Lion City Cup, I asked the Jets’ assistant coach Mark Jones if there was a chance I could travel to Australia to play for Newcastle Jets. He set me up for a week-long training stint there. The Technical Director of the Jets liked me after seeing me train,and asked me to come another time for a month. As I was still schooling then, I had to get the Sports School’s permission in this case. They agreed and allowed me to take lessons online,” Saifullah explained.
“Then I left for Newcastle and it was a good one-month training stint, honestly. I stayed with my coach because I was only 16 then. It was merely going to training and back but the training was good. Again, the Technical Director was impressed with me and he pushed me up to the Youth team. I played one game with the youth team and it was a really good game as well. But I was only 16, and FIFA regulations prohibit players below 18 to stay on their own. My parents had to get a job unrelated to football there so it didn’t work. ».
In 2016, a 17-year-old Saifullah then got to train with Tampines Rovers, where his father was an assistant coach and former Singapore international Varadaraju Sundramoorthy was in charge.
The Rovers were a star-studded side where it was extremely tough to become part of the first team, let alone a regular starter. Jermaine Pennant, Billy Mehmet and Jordan Webb were among the overseas signings at the club.
Saifullah wasn’t selected for any Singapore Premier League games, but with several Tampines players being unavailable for the League Cup due to international duty, a space in the starting XI was freed up.
He scored on his debut against Hougang United to announce his arrival in professional football and went on to start the next few games for Tampines Rovers until they crashed out of the League Cup in the semi-finals.
The midfielder stood head and shoulders above many others in the Singapore RHB Cup as well and scored in the semi-finals against the Filipino club United City, formerly known as Ceres. He was eager to start in the final as well, but it was time for him to go serve his National Service.
Like so many young Singaporean players, he did not get to play the game he loved during his service term because he was part of an active unit, regardless of his pleas to his superiors to allow him to train.
It was difficult for the football fanatic in Saifullah to stay away from the sport for so long. Therefore, he cashed in on his leave quota at the right moment to participate in the qualifying rounds of the 2018 AFC U-19 Championship in Mongolia, where they played the home side, Japan, and Thailand, in temperatures close to zero degrees Celsius.
Even as he was seeing out his last days of National Service, Saifullah was thinking about his football future, as ever aided by his father. Once his service term came to an end, Saifullah resumed his mission of playing in a foreign league on the very same day.
“After NS, I told my dad that I wanted to go to Europe straightaway. That was why I enlisted early. But he literally booked a flight right after I took back my IC in the morning. On that same night, I flew to Spain. My initial plan was to have a meal with my friends, enjoy one more week in Singapore, have good training and then go straight to Europe,” the youngster stated.
“I had three clubs to choose from. It was Tenerife B, Las Palmas, and I forgot the last one but I ended up choosing Tenerife B. When I was on the flight, I told myself that this was what I wanted. I’m finally going to Europe without any distractions,” he added.
Saifullah excelled in the club trials and impressed the Tenerife management, but the terms on the offer made him rethink his decision.
“The weather in Tenerife was perfect. I was performing well in my trials and the club’s coach and technical directors were impressed with me. They told me and my agent that I could improve a lot. I played three friendly games in which I got one goal and an assist. I had a really good time in Spain but honestly, I felt a little homesick then. I think because the island itself was really small and there was nothing to do. It was like living in Pulau Ubin,” the footballer affirmed.
“A week after I returned to Singapore, my agent told me that the club had offered me a contract, but it wasn’t a good one. The contract had to be better because of the money that they put in, and the accommodation and all … it’s not going to help me because if I’m going to live there with this kind of money, while having to pay for a house myself using my low salary, I’m not going to have much left,” Saifullah explained.
“It’s not going to help me as a footballer. Even if it’s my day of, what am I going to do if I’m not going to have money? I can’t fly to Madrid to have a good time. I know, this is secondary, but I think it is still important as a footballer to have a life outside of football.”
Saifullah had enough faith in his ability to think he was worth more than what they were prepared to pay. Supported by his agent and father, he turned down Tenerife B’s offer. Something he has subsequently come to regret. In the meantime, Young Lions had also begun to take interest in the young star.
“My agent advised me to just stay with Young Lions, who offered me a contract. She told me to try to make a good impression in one to two seasons in the SPL and go overseas again,” the midfielder asserted.
“Now I come to think of it, it’s a shame because I should have just stayed there. But at that point of time I was young. If you were to give me a contract like that now when I’m at this age, I think I can manage because I’m already an adult and I know what to expect, what to do and all that. It wasn’t really meant to be I guess then. So I came back and played for Young Lions.”
He began with the Young Lions and did well, scoring three goals and establishing himself in his preferred midfield role. However, by the end of 2019, Saifullah decided that it was time to step out of his comfort zone and make the transition to senior football. Hoping for the chance to return to Tampines again, instead, it was Home United that came in for him.
“I told myself that I wanted to play for a senior football club. I didn’t want to stay with Young Lions because I wanted to get out of my comfort zone and train at the highest level every single day. I wanted to go back to Tampines actually. While I was waiting for Tampines to call me, I got a call from someone saying that he said got me a club,” Saifullah said.
“He didn’t mention which club but he gave it away by revealing that the club had a dragon in their crest. I knew straight away that it was Home United. I was immediately interested and I was open to discussing with them. Home United offered me a very good contract and they also told me about the Lion City Sailors project. That got me interested because I knew it was going to be a challenge. I was aware that a lot of the senior players are going to be there so I took up the challenge. Overall, I can say I’m doing well so far.”
Saifullah, who bagged the SPL’s Young Player Of The Year award in 2020, is brimming with self-belief and continues to hope to land a contract at a foreign club in the near future.
“I mean going to Europe is not impossible at 22, but my immediate target is to go overseas hopefully as soon as possible so I can improve myself as a player. It doesn’t matter if it’s a league in Malaysia or Thailand. That’s one target that I have,” he stressed.
However, it wasn’t always smooth sailing for the fleet-footed attacking midfielder.
Having travelled to Bangkok with Young Lions for a series of friendly matches, the thought of not being able to cope with physically stronger opponents began to haunt him after he found himself being overrun in the middle of the park by his Thai opponents.
“It was around two or three years ago. They were really big, really fast and strong. I don’t have a big physique, I’m small. I had a poor game and I started thinking whether I can make it in football because of my size. I’m not even like an average size for football players, like in Europe or in the top Asian Leagues,” he mused.
But he snapped out of it by thinking about all the other small players who have made it big in professional football like Italian forward Sebastian Giovinco (1.60m), Uzbek midfielder Javokhir Sidikov (1.64m), Iran forward Mehdi Ghayedi (1.64m) and Thailand midfielder Chanathip Songkrasin (1.58m).
“These players have the same height and size as mine and they made it to the top leagues in Asia. These are the players that kept me going. I tell myself, if they can make it, I can make it, I just have to work really hard to be stronger, faster, fitter and smarter.”
And proving the old adage “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” true, Saifullah has actually gained from the experience.
Not only did it make him work harder in training, becoming both stronger and faster, but it also made him a smarter player, with his football intelligence making up for his lack of brawn.
The world of football can expect to hear a lot more about Saifullah Akbar in the future – and not just in Singapore.