He's one of us now, but will you cheer him on?
By G. Sivakkumaran, Straits Times Interactive

29/10/02

ON ALMOST every count, 24-year-old Daniel Bennett is as Singaporean as Ali, Arul or Ah Beng.

On every count, Dan, as his friends call him, is a player born and bred on the football pitches of Singapore.

He started learning, loving and playing the game through a local football scheme.

At 12, he was picked to join the now-defunct Milo Scheme, not some football nursery in England.

At 15, Tiong Bahru FC picked him for its youth squad. He may have studied at an expatriate school but his football fraternity was Singaporean.

Football, made in Singapore, was what he knew and grew to love.

He loved it so much, he decided to play professionally, something not many university-educated Singaporeans do, neither now nor in those halcyon days of the Malaysia Cup.

For three years, he soldiered in the trenches of S-League football, first with Balestier Central, then Tanjong Pagar and briefly with Singapore Armed Forces FC.

Thanks to the league, he has now gained a toehold in the English game. It may be at the very unglamorous level of Division Three, with Wrexham, but he is the first Singaporean to play in England.

For the past 21 years, Singapore was home, currently his parents' condominium, off Mount Sinai Rise.

Two weeks ago, Singapore became his country. He traded his British passport and applied for a Singapore red, a month after Singapore Immigration and Registration approved his application for citizenship.

After 21 years, Daniel Bennett is now a Singaporean. The way has been paved for him to star as a Lion.

Singaporeans will see Dan in the centre of the Lions' defence at the upcoming Tiger Cup in December, the most senior and prestigious senior Asean tournament now that the South-east Asia Games football tournament is an Under-23 affair.

Football Association of Singapore officials are over the moon.

Unlike Brazilian-born Egmar Goncalves, 32, and Croatian-born Mirko Grabovac, 31, Bennett is a long-term prospect, a significant find, perhaps the first one, in the bid to qualify for the final rounds of the World Cup in 2010.

Goncalves and Grabovac are in the national team to raise benchmarks for the local-born players, to make them less complacent and work harder for a place.

No one expects the two foreign-born Singaporeans to be part of the first, true Goal 2010 squad.

Bennett could be. His best playing years, that is, the next seven years, will be synonymous with the most trying phase of the nation's 2010 bid.

If Singapore is to qualify, it needs 15 to 20 other players of his calibre.

Unflappable, mature, strong, swift and sure-footed, he exudes confidence in the heart of defence.

Privately, FAS officials think he has the right stuff to captain Singapore's Goal 2010 team, which must take shape within the next two to three years.

Yet, the road to Bennett's citizenship was as difficult as Goal 2010 is likely to be.

Bennett, who spoke to Timesport when he was back to file his citizenship application two weeks ago, had serious doubts.

Would Singaporeans accept an angmoh as one of their own?

Would he understand what it was that made Singaporeans tick? He may have lived here since he was three but his schooling was not mainstream Singapore. He has been exempted from National Service.

He may be able to handle a pair of chopsticks as deftly as the Ah Beng at the next table at his favourite haunt at Newton Circus hawker centre, and loves murtabak. But, as any die-hard Singaporean can attest, these do not make you a native.

It was a dilemma that was to preoccupy him for two years, sparked as it was in 2000 by FAS chief operating officer John Koh, who broached the possibility of citizenship.

'They had some worries,' recalled Koh when he first discussed Dan's citizenship with father and son.

And when Bennett discussed it with his Singaporean and foreign friends, the overwhelming advice was: forget it.

'Almost everyone I asked told me not to give up my British passport,' he remembered.

He would regret it, they cautioned. After all, while he grew up in Singapore, he did not attend a Singaporean school.

His father Andrew moved the family to Singapore on the strength of a teaching contract with United World College, a school for expatriate kids.

So it was only natural that Dan and his only sibling, elder brother Tom, now 26 and working in England, studied at the school where dad taught.

Andrew Bennett and his wife Pat thought they would stay in Singapore for four years when they first arrived in 1981.

They liked it so much, they stayed five times longer than planned.

'There was no reason to move,' said Andrew.

Pat and Andrew understood their boy's dilemma two years ago.

They also knew their son. He had their unqualified love and support but it was not their decision to make.

'Dan is a very mature person, who knows what's best for him,' said Andrew, now the principal of the school where he joined as a teacher.

The problem for Dan was, what was best for him was split between two places.

After receiving his degree in sports science at Loughborough University, he decided to play professional football.

He loved Singapore because he grew up here, but his dream was to play at a higher professional level, in England.

'I really wanted to play in England, and I also wanted to be a Singapore citizen,' he recalled.

But he could not become a Singaporean and play in England. Or so, he and the FAS thought.

If he gave up his British passport, he would not obtain a work permit in England because a foreign player's country had to be ranked in Fifa's top 70 before he could be considered.

But thanks to an astute Straits Times reader who read about Bennett's plight, the problem was solved.

The reader unearthed a technical quirk called the right of abode, which solved Dan's problem.

It allowed him to work in Britain sans work permit although he may not be British, because he was born in England.

'I could play in England and become a Singapore citizen at the same time - that was great news,' he said.

'My dream is to play in the higher English divisions. Scouts from clubs like Coventry and Preston have come to watch me at Wrexham.

'I hope every Singaporean will be proud if I make it - because I'm Singaporean.'

Not being born here, not having gone to a mainstream school and not having experienced National Service are the three nadas critics of the foreign talent scheme will be eager to use against him - as they have against other star athletes like Li Jiawei, Jing Junhong and Ronald Susilo.

On the other hand, Bennett is ubiquitously Singaporean. He misses murtabak and roti prata. He hates the English weather.

'Too cold, too dark in winter,' he complains.

'Dan has been here so long, he's a Singaporean,' says Noraidi Mahat, 26, his good friend since they started out in the Milo Scheme.

Publications manager Jai Ganesh, 26, another close friend says: 'Dan's gone to England for the football, and he can fit in there because of his roots.

'But, deep down, I really think he prefers to live in Singapore.

'He's more comfortable here, and he's got a lot more friends here.'

Bennett himself admits that a chunk of the reason that decided it for him was football.

If not for football, he would have left the Republic because he would not have been able to secure a good job based on his degree.

Singapore football sparked a dream, it gave him respect and rewarded him.

Singaporeans loved him when he guest-starred for a national selection against Manchester United and Liverpool.

The S-League named him Player of the Year last year.

But that was not what really clinched it.

'Singapore is my only home. I've lived here all my life, it's the place I'm most familiar with, and I intend to stay,' he said. 'And that was what really helped me make my mind up.'

The rest, as they say, is now up to his countrymen.

Daniel Bennett

Date of birth: Jan 7, 1978
Nationality: Singaporean
Position: Defender
Marital status: Single
Teams played for: SAFFC, Tanjong Pagar United, Balestier Central
Favourite club: Everton
Honours: 2001 S-League Player of the Year, The Straits Times-Tiger Beer Footballer of the Month for July 2001.