Ronaldo has just become the joint-highest men s international goalscorer in history, whilst Ridhuan, who was on the brink of retirement in 2016, has agreed to play another season for Tanjong Pagar United in the Singapore Premier League. And the 37-year-old’s love of football began at an early age.
“It all started at the age of seven. During those days in Singapore football, the Malaysian Cup was one of the things that hyped me up. Both my parents – my dad and my late mum, were really supportive from the very start. My dad would always bring me to matches at the old National Stadium without fail. Looking at some of our legends like Fandi Ahmad, Abbas Saad, Malek Awab and Kadir Yahaya playing spiked my interest in football and I knew that I wanted to be a footballer since then,” Ridhuan said in an exclusive interview with
This is the outcome of a long process that started in 2018 when Abi was with the Indonesia U-19 national team where JDT scouts had pinpointed him as a potential tatent. They have been keeping tabs on him for years but because of injuries, the transfer move kept getting delayed year on year, said Rasiman, who is also the assistant coach at Madura United.
Rasiman sees the long-standing admiration for Abi as a positive sign that JDT views his son as a real prospect for the long-term. He also went on to suggest that it could be possible that Abi could one day become the successor to Hariss and that JDT is the right place for a young player to develop.