Local retired football player Fandi Ahmad and his youngest son Iryan, who turns 20 this year, appeared as guests on an episode of YouTube talk show DNA uploaded on May 7, sharing in detail to actress-host Rebecca Lim about their familial bond.
Fandi, 63, and his South African wife Wendy Jacobs also have sons Irfan, 28, Ikhsan, 27 and Ilhan, 23. Their only daughter Iman, who turns 26 on May 18, is an actress and singer.
Sharing recent life updates, Fandi stated that in the time he has been free since last year’s Malaysia Cup finals, he turned down several coaching offers he received in favour of taking care of his family and helping out at his friends’ academies. He expects to stay “free from football” until after the Fifa World Cup from June to July.
Iryan, on the other hand, is left with two months in his national service while he continues to focus on his professional football career.
With Iryan and his brothers following in their father’s footsteps to play football, Rebecca asked, has it always been his dream?
Surprisingly, Fandi replied: “Not really. When they were young, they never talked about football. When I opened my academy, they would train but they never said they were really interested or wanted to be professional players. Iryan was a rugby player, actually.”
Iryan shared that he had initially picked up football at a young age and took up the sport as his co-curricular activity (CCA) in primary school, but was subsequently kicked out due to chronic asthma and repeated trips to the hospital. It was then that a friend introduced him to rugby, which he pursued to secondary school until his coach told him he was “too small to play” the high-contact sport.
Disappointed, he was influenced by his brothers to return to football, where he made his Singapore Premier League debut in 2023. Iryan now plays with the Young Lions club.
Harkening back to his own days as a young footballer, Fandi voiced his regrets turning down an offer from the Dutch football club Ajax as a teen, which still haunts him to this day.
“At 16, I had been offered to go to Ajax, but I couldn’t because I was still in school. Then when I was 18, I was re-offered to go for their trial,” he recalled.
“But why I didn’t sign the contract is my biggest regret – my grandmother was very old. So when I came back [from the trial], she said, ‘Please don’t go too far. Just go down the region. Because if you go further, you can’t see me anymore.'”
As such, he urges his sons on the importance of sacrifice – they had to be prepared to leave Singapore for better football training for the aim of advancing their professional careers.
Pressure with father’s name
When asked to choose between studies and the sport, Fandi said: “In Singapore, studying is the most important for children. They have that to fall back on if they don’t make it, because not everyone can be a footballer.”
Bearing their father’s famed name comes with its own pressure. “I told them that once they step out of the house, you must be able to discipline yourself because people are watching,” added Fandi.
Rebecca asked Iryan if he’d ever had to deal with preferential treatment and claims of nepotism, and he said: “I just focus on myself, my training and trying to show it on the field… I know I have one good thing – I’m a lefter, and there aren’t many of us in Singapore.”
Backing him up, Fandi remarked that Iryan, along with Irfan and Iksan, have gone on to prove naysayers wrong as they’re “one of the best players Singapore has produced”.
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Iman made an appearance later in the episode, suprising her younger brother and father.
She told Rebecca: “I used to wish for a sister – an older one – because it can get lonely and there’s only so much that me and my mum can do with our mother-daughter relationship. After a while, I kind of liked my own space. And also knowing that I’ll have four sisters-in-law and that I get along with them, I think that’s enough.”
They revealed that the last time they were on a family vacation was in 2018, and that they rarely get together now due to their busy and conflicting schedules.
“If they come back, we usually have lunch together. But it’s very hard because when they come back, they stay in hotels with their team,” lamented Fandi.
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