Chung Cheng High (Main) students get chance to play against local football stars at Nike Cup

Story by Koh Yizhe/Red Sports. Photos by Lai Jun Wei/Red Sports

National Stadium East Entrance Promenade, Sunday, July 4, 2010 — A team from Chung Cheng High (Main) School may not have been able to make the top 10 of the Junior Category of the Nike Cup, but the five students got an opportunity of a lifetime – to play against five local football stars in a street football match.

Former and current Singapore internationals Fandi Ahmad, David Lee, Aide Iskandar, Indra Sahdan and Fazrul Nawaz graced the Grand Finals of the Nike Cup and featured in a celebrity match against the students from Chung Cheng High (Main) that they hand-picked.

In the 10-minute match, the local stars found themselves behind by two goals in the opening five minutes. However, after the change of sides, the more experienced team came back strongly and managed to equalise before Fandi grabbed the winner, giving the celebrity team a 3-2 victory.

“We are really honoured to get this chance to play with some of Singapore’s star footballers,” said Cedric Seah, one of the players that faced the celebs. “We only managed seven wins throughout the afternoon, but we were selected to play against them anyway. I don’t really care about the score line, because just playing on the same court with them is good enough.”

“This was the best part of our day – getting to play with the local stars!” added Cedric.

Besides the match, the football legends were there to share their advice and experiences with the aspiring young athletes.

Football legend Fandi, who found himself swamped with autograph and photo requests, said: “I had a good time sharing stories with the young football players here today. I think it’s great that Nike is giving the kids in Singapore such wonderful opportunities to improve their game.”

There was also plenty of other entertainment at the Grand Finals of the Nike Cup with local bands like Tabula, The Great Spy Experiment, and Singapore Idol winner Sezairi Sezali captivating spectators throughout the afternoon and evening.

For more photos, go to the next page.