Nabeel earned a two-week trial with the Premiership club, only to see his golden chance thwarted by SARS. Twenty years on, the former national youth footballer tells CNA Insider he is happy with the way his life has turned out.
After NS, he returned to Geylang United’s youth team. But uncertainty as to whether he would be in the S.League or the then Prime League, which was mainly for youth players, led to dissatisfaction on his part.
But much as he enjoyed flying, after several years Nabeel began wondering what was next. He decided he needed to be “marketable” once his flying days were over, so he studied part-time for his degree in mass communications. Then in 2016, he began dabbling in real estate. In Primary Six, his devotion to football upset his father, who wanted him to focus on his studies. “But I told him, “Dad, it’s okay if I don’t make it in my studies; I want to be a pro footballer,’” he said.
After his O levels in 2002, he signed up for the football camp that would land him the Everton trial. “A friend of mine said, ‘Do you want to come to this camp with me? We’ve finished our O levels; we deserve to play football,’” Nabeel recounted. During his brief training at Tranmere Rovers, he reckoned Singaporean players “wouldn’t fall short if we were to train together with them”.
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