Madness in Singapore

By: Martha | December 18th, 2007

Before the bad times. In the final of the Singapore Cup last month, the always high-strung Noh Alam Shah absolutely lost his mind. (Be patient with the clip, there are a lot of pauses so you can see it in detail, but I swear it’s not broken.) His team, Tampines Rovers, were trailing 4-3 late in the match, and he went into the box chasing a hopeful pass. Ostensibly trying to bring it down, he kneed defender Daniel Bennett (who is also Alam Shah’s international teammate) in the gut, then kneed him in the head as he lay on the ground before returning to kick him in the head after he’d started to walk away.

For his utter insanity, Alam Shah was red-carded, and has been suspended from domestic play for a year. He is not, however banned from international matches, and Radojko Avramovic, the Singapore coach, is having a hard time saying no to the striker, repeated behavior problems aside. Alam Shah, you see, is one of the best strikers in all of Southeast Asia, scores nearly every other game for his country, and is adored by fans for his competitiveness and ability to score in every important game the nation have played since his arrival in the national set-up as a 19-year-old. He was named MVP of this year’s AFF Football Championship, having scored 10 goals in the tournament (including seven in one match); Singapore haven’t lost an AFF Cup match since 2002. Additionally, they were the only team to beat Iraq as they made their Cinderella way to the Asian Cup Championship last year, winning 2-0 with a goal by, yes, Alam Shah.

The striker is currently recovering from ankle surgery, but Avramovic will have a decision to make once Alam Shah is healthy again. And, since Singapore are currently in the midst of World Cup qualifying and have matches coming up early next year, it’s a good guess Avramovic will ignore the principle and select the man who is arguably his best player. (Bennett’s bruised opinion, clearly, doesn’t count.)