It’s FAS Awards Night tomorrow, and given that we haven’t had football for a bit, I don’t know about you, but I am quite excited about this.
Our Sailors have been nominated for a whole bunch of awards, which is unsurprising, given that we have had some really stellar performers, and only just lost out to Albirex in the title race in the SPL, while finishing as champions for the second year in a row in the WPL.
Here’s some of my thoughts regarding the awards and who I think should win!
AIA Player of the Year
Nominees –
Maxime Lestienne – Lion City Sailors
Seia Kunori – Albirex Niigata (S)
Ryoya Taniguchi – Balestier Khalsa
These awards tend to favour attacking players, which I always found a little unfair, because defenders are just as important to a team achieving results as its attackers. Perhaps it is simpler to gauge contributions from attackers because there is a measurable end-product – goals and assists.
Since the introduction of the Ballon D’or award in 1956, only 3 defenders and 1 goalkeeper have ever won. Franz Beckenbauer in 1972 and 1976, Matthias Sammer in 1996, Fabio Cannavaro in 2006, and Lev Yashin in 1963.
Our local awards nights also suffer from the same problem – of the 27 Player of the Year awards handed out since 1996, only 4 belong to the backline – 3 defenders and 1 goalkeeper. Round of applause for S Subramani in 1998, Daniel Bennett in 2001, Valery Hiek in 2009, and Hassan Sunny in 2014.
After all that build-up – perhaps you may ask me which defender in the league I feel deserves a special mention. My answer is actually no one – I don’t think it was a year for defenders at all. Had Tampines kept up their early-season defensive prowess throughout the year, I may have been tempted to suggest one of Milos Zlatkovic or Shuya Yamashita – but they didn’t, so there’s that.
Sorry if you feel I wasted your time with a history lesson – old people tings, lol.
On to our 3 candidates, let’s quickly look at some of the merits for choosing each player.
Given that this is an individual award, I think the above table should show without a doubt that Maxime Lestienne deserves this award. When I was compiling these stats, I could barely believe some of them – I mean I knew he was good, but this good? Wow.
I would like to zoom in on the 4th metric I used – goals and assists as a percentage of team’s total goals.
This for me is a gauge as to how influential the player has been to his team. It is quite clear that in fact there is a bit of an over-reliance on Maxime, as 58.2% of the goals scored by the Sailors are either scored or assisted by him. This far outstrips his two competitors for the award.
I think enough ink has been spilt here – if he doesn’t win the award, we riot.
AIA Young Player of the Year
Nominees –
Hakeme Yazid – Brunei DPMM FC
Seia Kunori – Albirex Niigata (S)
Abdul Rasaq Akeem – Lion City Sailors FC
Of course, if favouritism were to enter the picture, I’d highlight how extraordinary Abdul Rasaq has been this season. He is the top local goalscorer with 10 goals, and it is impressive how he started the season probably expecting to play limited minutes, but ended up being our frontman for many games once Kodai Tanaka suffered an unfortunate and serious injury. He even saw off the challenge of a foreign signing – Bernie Ibini-Isei, to hold on to the starting striker spot, which is very impressive for someone of his age.
However, if we were to give the three players the same statistical treatment that we did above, the case for Abdul Rasaq becomes less compelling. Seia Kunori dominates with his sheer number of goals and assists. He has also won the title, while Hakeme Yazid’s team finished in 7th place, and it would seem a bit strange to give Young Player of the Year to a player from a team that largely struggled.
Of course, bear in mind that Hakeme Yazid did all this without the benefit of home advantage all season, and the stats below do show that his team relied heavily on him, as he contributed to almost half of the goals scored by DPMM.
While the stats also do show Abdul Rasaq having a very impressive conversion rate, I think there is no doubt that everything points towards Seia Kunori picking up the Young Player of the Year award.
Polar Mineral Water Coach of the Year
Nominees –
Kazuaki Yoshinaga – Albirex Niigata (S)
Peter De Roo – Balestier Khalsa
Gavin Lee – Tampines
Can’t bring myself to care much about this – but I’d like to see Peter de Roo get it for Balestier punching above their weight and playing swashbuckling attacking football all year. Win, lose or draw, a game featuring Balestier Khalsa was always exciting.
Oh wait maybe just win or lose – Balestier didn’t draw a game all season. 12 wins and 12 losses. Alexa, play “All or Nothing” by O-Town.
Sidenote – if Yoshinaga wins it, he will be the first coach to win this award 4 times, going ahead of Richard Bok and Vorawan Chitavanich.
Select Goal of the Year
Winner – Khairul Amri vs Hougang United (6 April 2023)
Strangely, last year’s awards ceremony had 3 nominees for Goal of the Year but this year it seems from the press release that this Khairul Amri goal has already been selected as Goal of the Year. Not that it’s not a deserving winner, it’s a brilliant goal from the legendary Khairul Amri. Mid-air, cross played behind him, he manages to jump up and contort his body to land a ferocious scissor-kick volley that gave the keeper no chance. It was a brilliant goal which won them the game as well.
Just guess it would have been more fun had our Sailors got a nominee or two in this section as well. Shawal Anuar’s halfway line lob over Hairul Syirhan in our win against Balestier? Maxime Lestienne’s chip over Syazwan in that 5-2 victory at OTH?
Oh well, anyway, congrats Khairul Amri!
Singapore Premier League Top Scorer
Maxime Lestienne
Enough said about this brilliant Belgian blockbuster of a baller. Give him a contract, make him sign it. Let him add however many zeroes he wants at the back of his salary. He deserves it.
On to women’s football!
Deloitte WPL Player of the Year
Nominees –
Kitahara Kana – Albirex Niigata (S)
Izzati Rosni – Lion City Sailors
Nur Raudhah Kamis – Hougang Utd
This is the part where it might seem like I am making excuses. I am almost embarrassed to say this but I swear it’s true.
The analysis for the Women’s Premier League section is gonna be nowhere near as detailed as it is for the mens’ section above, and I am sorry for that. The reality is that I am only able to watch Sailors games, and even then, not every single one. By my own estimation, I have been to about 2/3 of the games, and each time I attend, I try to get an interview done to let people hear the thoughts of the coach and players.
The fact that there is no live stream of the games also means that on packed weekends, I cannot multi-task and watch games featuring other teams besides the Sailors. Now to top it all off – the website itself doesn’t cover as much stats as they do for the men’s game. Let me show you what information I have to work with.
I have the league table, and I have a list of the top 4 scorers. These are accurate as at the end of Matchday 16 – or at least I think so. We are already at the end of Matchday 17 but it has not been updated yet.
But more importantly, for the men’s side, if I want to know how many goals Abdul Rasaq has scored for example, I can just click on his name and see it. I will see how many minutes he has played, how many assists he has, how many goals he has scored, how many cards he has received.
For the women’s game – if I want to see how many goals Miray Altun has scored, I just can’t.
It’s thus hard for me to analyse the impact of these women on their respective teams, and so I won’t try.
My biased vote will go to Izzati because she is a sharp goalscorer and she works hard for the team. She drops deep to receive the ball, and yet is also always on the end of opportunities to finish. She’s a smart player who knows where the back of the net is. All the best Izzati!
WPL Young Player of the Year
Nominees –
Nur Sarah Zu’risqha – Albirex Niigata (S)
Nur Syazwani Ruzi – Lion City Sailors
Dhaniyah Qasimah – Tanjong Pagar Utd
The same things I said above apply here. I will just speak about Syazwani – lovingly referred to by her teammates as simply “Wani”.
In a recent Futbolita interview featuring Lila Tan and Madelin Lock, they both heaped praise on Wani, and for good reason. Everytime I have watched her play this season, she has not put a foot wrong, and it doesn’t matter whatever the game state is. When the game needs a goal, or when things need to be tightened up, Coach Sheau Shyan always relies on Wani.
The trust in her can also be seen by how Wani pops up in whatever position that the coach requires her to play. I’ve seen her at fullback, centreback, and even in midfield. Immaculate first touch and with just the right amount of aggression, she always manages to win the ball, and then distribute it effectively to her teammates.
She is also a confident taker of penalties – and has been entrusted with the heavy responsibility of taking two game-winning penalty kicks late in matches. She scored them both. (I think this is true, hope my memory serves me right.)
Commenting on the other 2 candidates would be unfair to them because I have not watched them play besides against the Sailors. For being a steady presence on the field for our women’s team, I truly hope Wani picks up the Young Player of the Year award.
WPL Coach of the Year
Nominees –
Sivaraj Geevananthan – Hougang United
Yeong Sheau Shyan – Lion City Sailors
Samawira Basri – Tanjong Pagar Utd
Same here – I cannot comment on the two coaches of Hougang and Tanjong Pagar Utd because I have not watched their teams enough. I must say that this year I think Hougang and Tanjong Pagar Utd gave our Sailors women a real fight and the matches were all very tense and very intense. These matches were often scrappy affairs but it was great to see our players rise above.
As for our coach Sheau Shyan – she is always such a humble person who is a real delight to chat with after games. Forthright and honest, her views are always fair and I like that about her.
This year she has had to deal with challenges because the team has had to cope with numerous absences due to work schedules, people leaving the team for Unleash the Roar, amongst other reasons. It was not uncommon to see the Sailors bench only having 1 or 2 options – and we even played Wati (usually a goalkeeper) in attack once.
To lead this team to the brink of invincibility once more for the second season running and finish as champions – I hope that is sufficient for those voting to go for Sheau Shyan as Coach of the Year.
Story of the Year
Nominees
Yes, We Work Like Women – And It’s Been Wildly Effective (Kenneth Tan, LCS Media Team)
First thing to note is there was a cock-up and FAS was not entirely clear about what the nomination procedures and criteria were – but they have apologised and I think that takes some balls. I do feel for the original entries that were taken out, and I hope they realise that those stories were excellent too.
My favourite story of the 3 nominees is our very own Kenneth Tan’s “Yes, we work like women – and it’s been wildly effective”.
This is just an excellent story that really delves deep into the work-lives of Huong Tran, our team manager, and Carolyn, our ops manager.
Just when you think there is enough material in there alone to talk about how they thrive in their roles despite being in a male-dominated industry, Kenneth goes the extra mile to really get to know his subjects and bring out how they contribute at home as well, and how family is a source of strength for them to tap on.
An excellent article which makes you feel like you know the pair more, I hope Kenneth gets the award. But don’t just take my word for it, go read all 3 articles! I have linked them in the nominees section above so do check them out.
Photo of the Year
Nominees
Beguiling mix of Belgian muscle and magic (Ashok Kumar, LCS Media Team)
Victory in Unity (Leo Shengwei, Playmaker)
93:50, Boyhood Dream (Lau Lup Yun, Tampines Rovers Media Team)
I tried searching for the other two nominee photos but could not find them, so just enjoy this brilliant photo of Maxime in full flight.
(Would prefer a simpler photo of him sitting at a table signing a new contract, I have to say, but well done Ashok, what a phuckin’ photo)
Conclusion
It is an exciting time for the Sailors not just on the pitch with the Singapore Cup and the AFC Champions League. While individual awards are not team silverware, I believe that they do play an important role in recognising the hard work and sacrifices the players and staff have put in to ensure that the whole LCS family comes out on top in every sphere. In the Sailors’ continued pursuit for excellence, individual glory will be a very welcome by-product indeed.
Looking forward to Awards Night!
