A Tribute to Lion City Top Striker Indra Sahdan Daud

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It was warm at the Stadium and the crowd was forming in front of the platform. I squeezed in with my team mates and the furthest we could do so was about 5meters from the award presentation area. Slowly but gracefully, the players walked up the steps, to the middle of the platform to receive their well-deserved medals in front of nearly a thousand who stayed back after the final match. Lastly, Singapore’s captain, number-13 lifted the long awaited trophy – Singapore won the Lion City Cup 1995.

The overwhelming and heroic reception which the 16year olds received at the old Jalan Besar Stadium was amazing. As part of the Spex 2000 MILO Soccer School U14 players, I was there together with some of my team mates under the instruction of our head coach. The obvious reason was to observe and learn from the ‘seniors’ who had been performing remarkably well in that edition. Particularly, this name, Indra Sahdan Daud was repeatedly highlighted to us not only by our coaches, but also on the newspapers. Somehow as a 14year old who dreamed of walking the same glamorous path as what he had done then, I just wanted to know him more!

S.League kicked off in 1996 and certainly it did not come as a surprise as Indra continued with his fine form donning the jerseys of Police FC (now known as Home United FC) and Geylang United FC (now known as Geylang International FC). With his exceptional goal scoring record, the 18year old was called up to the National Team in 1997. My wish of playing together with him or against him grew further apart.

The chance finally came in 1999. Finally, I had the opportunity to play against the player whom I’ve looked up to as an inspiration all these while. I thought to myself, it’s the time of my life where I could see how different our standard was. As an active Centreback with one of the Prime League teams, I was all ready and confident to stop the National Team’s striker who was merely just 2 years my senior. No big deal!

The moment it was made known that Indra would be playing us, it seems like our school got a little excited. Everyone wanted to catch a glimpse of him in action. Unknowingly, the excitement spawned from his visit was a reminder to us that our opponent was the hot favorite to come, win and go. Not a good sign but nobody cared. Crowd gathered at the pitch side and it was way too easy to spot the Man of that moment – Indra had his hair tinned which made his movement extremely obvious.

To summarize the match, the gold-haired cruised past everyone, scored 2 goals and inspired his team to a 5-2 victory over us at our home ground. Well, think about it, the biggest consolation for me is that the goals which he scored did not come from my mistakes. Alright, for a second, I have forgotten that football is a team sports! And after the match, I was brought back to earth humbly by the Striker.

Although I am no more longer wishing for big football things to happen on me, not especially at this age, I am still following the progress of one of the top strikers in Singapore. What Indra has achieved, domestically and overseas, is something which doesn’t happen in Singapore easily. Apart from scoring against top countries like Uruguay, Japan, Denmark or even Manchester United, this player who won 100 over caps for Singapore, nearly secured a contract with MSL’s Real Salt Lake.

If you are to ask me, it is definitely a pity to see such a good professional player hanging up his boots but hey, let’s put it this way, he has achieved more than what Singapore could imagine he would in his football career!

Nonetheless, we got to thank him for his contribution to Singapore’s football. We thank him for bringing back the Lion City Cup in 1995! We thank him for giving Singapore a football hope when he almost secured a contract with Real Salt Lake. And finally, we have to thank him for reminding us that beside Fandi Ahmad, we still have another striker by the name of Indra Sahdan Daud, who can score goals too.

Indra Sahdan lifting Lion City Cup in 1995 (Photo: Junpiter Futbol)

Indra Sahdan, fourth from the right,receiving Spex 2000 MILO National Soccer School Award in 1996, Photo from Singapore Sports Council’s Sports Magazine, 1996 (Archive of Junpiter Futbol)