SINGAPORE - Having your dad as the head coach of the team you play for may sound like a boon to some. Geylang International defender Ilhan Noor, however, will tell you it can also be quite the opposite.
The 19-year-old fullback, who is the oldest of Eagles coach Noor Ali’s four children, has blossomed in the Singapore Premier League (SPL) this season. Yet if 47-year-old Noor had his way years ago, Ilhan would not even be playing football today.
“He has always told me he preferred me to focus on my studies instead of football,” said Ilhan at a training session two days before Geylang’s final SPL game of the season. The fourth-placed Eagles host champions Albirex Niigata on Friday.
Noor, a former Singapore international winger, said that a younger Ilhan would sometimes even be driven to tears when he raised opposition to his son’s interest in pursuing a professional career in football.
“I lived that life and I know it’s not easy being a professional footballer in Singapore,” explained Noor. “So I had always wanted him to focus on academics.”
Ilhan, however, said he had always been drawn to football from a young age, partly due to his father’s exploits in the game.
Noor lifted the Asean Football Federation Championship in 1998 with the national team and also won three league titles with Geylang and Singapore Armed Forces FC, scoring over 100 goals in the process.
The more Noor kept trying to steer his son’s dreams away from football, though, the more it drove him towards achieving them.
“It makes me motivated to try and achieve even more than he did,” said the youngster.
Ilhan’s soft-spoken demeanour belies a fierce determination and persistence, which eventually convinced Noor to allow his son to join Geylang’s Under-15 team.
He rose through the club’s age-group teams before being brought into the first-team fold along with a handful of other teenagers players in 2019, when Noor took over as the Eagles’ first-team coach. Even then, said Noor, Ilhan was the least likely to break into the first team.
“But credit to him, he worked harder than the more talented or gifted players ahead of him,” said the coach. “He doesn’t miss training, he wants to learn, he does his own weight training, which you don’t see a lot of young players do.”
Ilhan has beefed up in the last three years – he has added about 10kg to his 1.77m frame and weighs 55kg now – but he had to wait two years before making his SPL debut in 2021. He made 10 appearances, and has followed that up with 20 this term.
Those appearances have been earned on merit – he has been named in The Straits Times’ Team of the Week four times, more than any other teen – but both Ilhan and Noor have still heard whispers alleging nepotism.
But Ilhan is not bothered. “If I prove myself to be a good player, no one can say anything,” he said, shrugging his shoulders.
Noor said his family, who are often in the stands for Geylang’s games, sometimes hear such comments from supporters in the stands when Ilhan makes mistakes, but he added: “The only thing that will keep people’s mouths shut are Ilhan’s performances.
“When we’re on the field, he knows very well he’s not my son, he’s my player. I don’t think he needs to prove anything to anybody.”
Ilhan said the key to his improvement this season is confidence.
“I feel like I’ve learnt how to play not to impress, but to improve my game... But I still know there is so much more for me to learn,” he said.
Noor, who has set his son a target of trying to make the national Under-22 squad who will compete at the SEA Games and Asian Games in 2023, added: “His progress is something that a coach would be satisfied with. As a father, I’m proud.”
For now, the coach wants Ilhan – and Geylang – to end the season strongly. A win over Albirex would seal fourth place, as Tanjong Pagar and Hougang United look to leapfrog the Eagles in the final round of games.
Noor told The Straits Times: “We want to finish the season on a high, and hopefully we can finish fourth and take with us a good mentality into the Singapore Cup.”
Other games
Hougang v Balestier
(Thursday, 7.45pm, Hougang)
A season which promised much for Hougang is fizzling out, with the Cheetahs winning just three of their last nine games.
They could still finish fourth – their best placing is third (2019 and 2021) – if they beat second-from-bottom Balestier and other results go their way.
Tampines v Tanjong Pagar (Thursday, 7.45pm, Our Tampines Hub)
With third place already secured for the Stags, their motivation will be to help striker Boris Kopitovic seal the golden boot.
He has 33 goals this term – one ahead of closest challenger Kodai Tanaka of Albirex – but only two have come in the three appearances he has made against fifth-placed Tanjong Pagar.
The Jaguars themselves are aiming to finish the season strongly and claim fourth place, one spot higher than where they finished improve on last term’s fifth spot.
Lion City Sailors v Young Lions (Friday, 7.45pm, Jalan Besar)
The Young Lions are in serious danger of going into the record books with the worst defensive record in the history of the SPL history. They have conceded a mind-boggling 101 goals and are two behind the current mark of 103, held by Balestier Central’s 2002 team.
The Sailors are the SPL’s most potent attack (89 goals) and have won all three previous meetings against the developmental side, with a combined score of 16-2.
