From Panna players to Singapore Premier League professionals, Jun Tan, founder of Junpiter Futbol, takes the guest editor’s seat for Regal F.C. to talk to these renaissance ballers about their blend of success, strengths and dreams.
In collaboration with Junpiter Futbol, CHIVAS presents the third of a three-part profile interview series with Singapore’s most resilient footballers for REGAL F.C., the social club for creative visionaries.
The Regal F.C. Half-time Conversation #3 | Angeline Chua, the Trailblazer. By Junpiter Futbol
She won’t tell you she’s one, but make no mistake, Angeline Chua is a trailblazer for women’s football in Singapore. The former Lioness may have retired from playing professionally, but she is still committed to the Beautiful Game. Her illustrious football career saw her representing the Singapore Women’s National Team between 2002 and 2019, where she amassed 32 caps. For the uninitiated, caps are the number of times a player plays an international game for the national team.
In 2013, Angeline ventured into coaching, and while still playing, she became the assistant coach for the U14 and U16 girls’ teams, where she quickly rose through the ranks within the Football Association of Singapore (FAS). Fast forward to April 2021, Angeline was appointed Head Coach and Director of Football of the Seychelles Women’s National Team. In doing so, she joins a celebrated list of Singapore coaches and technical directors who made the jump to coach overseas. These eminent names include the likes of P N Sivaji, Akbar Nakas, Fandi Ahmad, and V. Sundramoorthy. Angeline Chua is glaringly the only woman on the list from a storied list of lionised names in homegrown football, a testament to her tenacity and influence. She is paving the way for female footballers in Singapore.
After spending close to a year in the Seychelles women’s football setup, Angeline has noticed many differences between Seychelles and Singapore. “Here in Seychelles, we don’t train just to train,” explains Angeline. “Training is purposeful. There is a positive football culture aided by people understanding the importance of playing the games as part of a football team. In Seychelles, football competitions for women have been few and far between in the past ten years, while men’s domestic competitions are a regular calendar fixture. We are working towards making women’s football competitions a regular thing in Seychelles.”
“Similarly, I hope that the Singapore football community can come together to organise more games to create a more competitive domestic environment for female footballers to showcase their talents. It is only through regular playing across all levels through games and competitions that we can rise together.”
Football isn’t just about playing regularly. Angeline believes that women’s football in Singapore could do with more structure critical for the growth of quality games and players. That is not all.
“I think having the right kind of mindset where one’s football knowledge is consistently kept up to scratch is important, as is the availability of proper facilities,” says Angeline. “Seychelles and Singapore either lack one or the other. In Seychelles, the footballers have a decent understanding of football, but what holds Seychellois players back is the lack of decent pitches and their access to them. On the other hand, we have plenty of facilities and pitches in Singapore, but we lack the fire that will push our players upwards in the development of football—it’s a mindset shift that we need to flip,” she adds.
“We are all finding the best solutions that fit the Singaporean context; we want a different outcome, but we are not willing to invest in our people to achieve the goals that Singapore wants.”
We’ve heard this story before. When it is impossible to achieve a sportsperson’s full potential on home ground, talented people look outside Singapore to develop themselves. It’s a talent drain that we all hope will reverse and result in them bringing their overseas experience back to Singapore to further teachings and knowledge, regardless of the sport.
Being a footballer in Singapore is hard, but women’s football is a whole different challenging level. Singaporeans recognise Fandi, Sundram, and Harris as household names, but you’ll be hard-pressed to name a single female player. There is a distinct lack of female role models in football.
“In 2016, I took part in the AFC Women’s Assistant Programme led by UEFA Technical Expert Hesterine de Reus,” shares Angeline. “It was the first time that I understood the rationale behind football actions on the pitch. It also illustrated how far behind the women’s game was in Singapore. I feel that women footballers need to be exposed to playing the game at a younger age like the boys, in the schools or football academies.”
The narrative of Women in football needs to be normalised. It’s about challenging gender norms and telling every person from a young age that football is for everyone, equal for boys and girls.
“The right formula to propelling football is understanding that better coaches make better players,” continues Angeline. “The course led by Hesterine made me realise this and in many ways. She was a role model for me because she inspired me to pursue coaching seriously.”
Angeline points out that while it is heartening to see Singaporean footballers pursue their passions to move overseas, she also hopes that these individuals will come back to Singapore to contribute to Women’s football. According to her, Singapore can become a powerhouse and cites the Philippines national team as an inspiring example.
“I was excited to see the Philippine’s women’s national team qualify for the World Cup,” she shares. “Their progress in the past two years has grown by leaps and bounds. They were on par with the Singapore Women’s football team just five years ago, and now they’re in the World Cup! A few of their ex-national team members stepped up and assumed important roles in improving their team development. The Filipino women’s football team made history with further investments from the federation that complemented these efforts. They have truly reaped what they sowed.”
If we can only be confident of one thing, the only way for Women’s football is upwards. The field has so much potential, but multiple stakeholders need to come together to improve the state of women’s football in the little red dot.
At the top of Angeline’s wish list is the return of the Women’s National League. Creating opportunities for regular playing time at the club level could help elevate women’s football in the state. At the same time, more could be done to advance and expand on career alternatives beyond the short career span of professional ballers. In the same way, creating a Women’s Master League or lifestyle leagues such as one for moms or working women could also help women footballers remain in the game after they’ve formally hung up their boots.
“It really just takes one of us as women to do well for the rest of us to be inspired. We’ll always strive for more.”
“Having a role model helped me rise to this position, and it is important that we have more of them so that future generations can look up to them as well,” says Angeline. “I hope that by being successful as the head coach and technical director of a women’s football team, there will be other women who’ll feel motivated to rise as well. I have faced many struggles as one of the first female footballers to take on the position of Head Coach of a national team overseas. However, by winning over my struggles, I hope people can realise coaching at a high level is possible for anyone willing to try. Ultimately, we need more women to become football coaches. If we have enough women in football and enough of us to continue a career in coaching, we will definitely elevate the status of women’s football.”
For men or women, the path Angeline has paved ahead cannot be denied. It’s an important pathway for Singapore footballers and the sport’s progression. After all, it isn’t every day that a Singaporean inducts important positions as Technical Director and Head Coach of a national team overseas.
Angeline will be leading the Seychelles Women’s National Team in three international fixtures in the coming days. These fixtures have great significance for the African team. “We played our first-ever recorded international match against the UAE in September 2021; we played two matches,” shares Angeline. “The criteria to getting a ranking in FIFA is that you have to play five Tier-1 games with a ranked team. This February, we will be playing three international friendlies – two matches against the Maldives on 15 and 18 February 2022 and one against Saudi Arabia on 20 February. Getting ranked on the Women’s FIFA football ranking is our immediate objective.”
This February, the nation of Seychelles won’t be the only one lending Angeline their support. We’ll be right here cheering on from this side of the pond.
There are few generational figures and players representing a certain level of achievement, household names such as Fandi, Sundram and Harris, who have paved the way for local football. We’re adding Angeline Chua to this list as a footballer and coach who will speak to a new generation of fans and players alike, for men, for women, girls and boys — all of the people who’ll show up to the pitch for absolute love of the Beautiful Game.
Where football goes, culture follows. Join REGAL F.C., a social club that elevates global football culture at www.chivas.com/en-SG/REGALFC and gain priority access to member perks, events and competitions.
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