How Farhan Zulkifli became one of Singapore’s most exciting young footballers

In that instant, you can understand why people gravitate towards the 23-year-old left winger.

What makes Farhan’s story remarkable is the timeline. He played basketball in primary school because there was no football co-curricular. And he only got into football in secondary school, which means he had, at most, two or three years of experience with the sport, before he was called up to train with Hougang United’s senior team at 16. He made his debut, and quickly became the Singapore Premier League’s second-youngest ever scorer.

He tells this story almost casually, as if the extraordinary pace of it only becomes obvious when he says it out loud. “I actually did not expect how fast my breakthrough to the men’s team would be,” he reflects.

As one of Singapore’s brightest young players, Farhan is thoughtful about what the AFC Asian Cup qualification means, and about the weight of the national jersey specifically.

For someone who has been wearing that jersey since he was a teenager, it hasn’t become routine. “I always tell myself not to take anything for granted,” he adds. When I ask what he hopes people understand about Singapore football right now, he doesn’t talk about results or rankings. He talks about the people behind the scenes. That includes the back room staff, the support teams, and the ones who don’t appear in match reports.

He says: “There are a lot of hard-working players and staff behind the scenes that we don’t actually see. But these are the important people who will raise the level of football in Singapore.”

PHOTOGRAPHY: DARREN GABRIEL LEOW
CREATIVE DIRECTION & STYLING: LENA KAMARUDIN ASSISTED BY: CHARIS GAN
ART DIRECTION: RAY TICSAY
HAIR: MANISA TAN
GROOMING: ZHOU AIYI, USING SHISEIDO