Uncle Choo: Singapore's Greatest Football Coach

Book excerpt: Choo Seng Quee is arguably Singapore's greatest football coach. He brought Singapore football to great heights, especially during the 1970s. This larger-than-life footballing icon had already made a name for himself as a no-nonsense defender during the 1930s helping Singapore win the Malaya Cup on two occasions.World War II disrupted his promising playing career, and after the war, he switched to coaching. In a coaching career spanning almost 30 years, he had several spells as coach of the Singapore national team (in addition to also coaching the Malaysian and Indonesian teams). Though his coaching methods were 'old school', based on hard work and discipline, success followed him wherever he went.His brash manner, unfortunately, did not endear well with the powers who ran the Singapore Amateur Football Association (SAFA), a predecessor of the Football Association of Singapore (FAS). This led him being thrown into football wilderness on several occasions. But that did not stop him from progressing in his coaching career. The football administrators from Malaysia and Indonesia took advantage of these moments of 'unemployment' by offering him financially attractive contracts to coach their respective teams, leading to years of success while Choo Seng Quee was at the helm.This is the incredible story of this legend known to many as simply 'Uncle Choo' who instilled a sense of patriotism in his players. To him, wearing the Singapore jersey was a badge of honour.