Why Glenn Kweh refused to choose between football and a degree

“I’m quite the overthinker,” he admits. “I tend to think a lot about a lot of things, sometimes a little too much.”

In 2016, Glenn made a decision that most 15-year- olds in his position might not have had the clarity to make. He was travelling for football competitions, which negatively impacted his O-level preparation. And so, he chose to step away from the game entirely. It took five years – through O levels, then A levels, then National Service – before he fully returned.

He says of football: “That has been my dream all along, ever since I was a child, and it hasn’t changed one bit.”

After returning to professional football, Glenn continued pursuing his studies. In 2024, he graduated from the National University of Singapore with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration.

“People always told me you can’t do well in academics and sports. I just want to be an example that you can,” he says.

There’s a particular kind of pride when he talks about it. He isn’t boastful, but firm. The degree matters to him, not just as a qualification, but as a statement. The debate among Singaporeans – that you have to choose between being good at school and being good at sports – is one that he has heard his whole life, and has quietly, methodically proved wrong.

Recently, he went back to his alma mater Victoria Junior College to speak to its students, and it’s clear that this is where his sense of legacy lives: not in trophies, but in the idea that a kid watching him might think, if he can do both, maybe I can too.

“It wasn’t easy, but I wouldn’t say it’s impossible. As long as you have discipline and time management, it’s manageable,” Glenn declares.

Off the pitch, Glenn is his own person in ways that might surprise. For someone who gives so much on the pitch, Glenn finds his gentlest self off it — an animal lover whose most loyal companion is a five-year-old Bichon who greets him the same whether he scores or not. He describes himself as a family person, someone who takes his mind off football by spending time with the people he loves. “I try to be myself when I’m on the pitch,” he says, noting that the difference between his on-field and off-field self is mostly a matter of volume. “Off the pitch, I can be quite quiet. On the pitch, I’m a little less quiet.”

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