They made the S-Leap

A JAPANESE and a Canadian were chatting during a Danish SuperLiga club's training trip to Turkey a week ago.

Guess what the conversation was about?

Singapore football.

Over a cup of tea, Issey Nakajima Farran and Suguru Hashimoto, both players at Vejle Boldklub, were reminiscing about a country thousands of miles away.

The duo played two seasons in the S-League with Japanese club Albirex Niigata.

The Canada-born Farran, whose family moved to Japan when he was three years old, was Albirex's star striker in 2004 and 2005, before he moved to Vejle.

Hashimoto donned the Japanese club's colours in 2005 and 2006, and at the end of last year signed for Vejle, who play in Denmark's top league.

The pair are grateful to the S-League and Albirex for providing them with their first taste of professional football.

So grateful that they intend to retire here when their playing days are over, according to 25-year-old Hashimoto.

Before arriving in Singapore, both played for youth sides in Japan.

If not for the S-League, they could still be languishing in Japan's semi-professional football.

They are, however, just two of the S-League's more successful exports.

Striker Grant Holt, who spent four months with Sengkang Marine in 2002, is now at English League One side Nottingham Forest.

He played against Chelsea in the FA Cup fourth round on Jan 28 - a match Forest lost 0-3.

'It was a shame I had to leave Singapore, as I got an offer from an English club,' the 26-year-old said on Monday.

Another Albirex alumnus, 24-year-old midfielder Hidetoshi Wakui, is currently at Slovenian Division One side Interblock Ljubljana.

The S-League's most famous products, however, are three Iranians who represented their country in the 1998 World Cup Finals.

The coach Jalal Talebi, the defence linchpin Mohammad Khakpour and the playmaker Hamid Reza Estili were with Geylang United in 1996, the S-League's inaugural year.

The club predictably won the league and the FA Cup double that year.

They had come to Singapore towards the tail end of their careers.

But Farran, Hashimoto and Holt played here at the prime of their youth.

'It was a good chance for me to experience a different culture and style of football,' said Holt, who was 22 when he played here.

Before flying to Singapore, the Englishman had played for only English non-league sides.

It was only after his stint here that he began playing for league sides Rochdale, Sheffield Wednesday and Forest.

Said Farran, 22: 'The S-League gave us a chance to hone our skills when we were still very young.

'And, who knows, Hashimoto and I might even return to play in Singapore later in our lives.

'That was where we began our professional careers, so it is a very special place for us.'

The S-League's 2005 Young Player of the Year still follows Albirex's fortunes through the club's website.

He made some eye-catching performances here, scoring 12 and 14 goals in the 2004 and 2005 seasons.

He caught the eye of former Singapore Armed Forces FC coach Kim Poulsen, now head coach at Vejle.

Poulsen convinced him to continue his career in Denmark, and Farran signed a contract with them last February.

Hashimoto followed in Farran's footsteps at the end of last year.

Farran has scored 12 goals in 29 appearances at the club where former Everton and Real Madrid midfielder Thomas Gravesen started his career.

The player, who has a Canadian father and Japanese mother, also played for Canada in a friendly against Hungary last November.

But his ultimate dream is to play in the Champions League and the World Cup.

'For now, I hope to play in the Concacaf Gold Cup this summer, if Canada makes it through the qualifying rounds,' he said, referring to the soccer championship for North and Central American countries.

If he realises his dream, the S-League would truly celebrate with one of its biggest exports.

And, hopefully, get another advertisement on the world stage.

limze@sph.com.sg