SINGAPORE – Whenever Chris Yip-Au looks out of her office window, she is greeted by the sight of mountains.

This picturesque view is a dream for the nature lover, but leaving the comforts of home for Seychelles was not an easy decision for the former Singapore international.

In October, she joined the Seychelles Football Federation as its head of women’s football and women’s national team coach.

Yip-Au, 29, said: “During Covid I managed to spend a lot of time with my family. It made me realise that I really love home, so going overseas to find a coaching stint was really not something on the cards.

“I was very happy with where I was at the time, with family and friends and contributing to the football scene in Singapore. But this was the right time and opportunity for me to venture and be the best that I can be.”

The role was previously held by Yip-Au’s former national teammate Angeline Chua, whose stint lasted from April 2021 to March 2023.

Chua is now the head coach of the Fiji women’s national team.

Under Chua, world No. 163 Seychelles gained more international exposure as they entered the women’s football world rankings for the first time, and Yip-Au hopes to build on her compatriot’s work.

Beyond just working with the national team, being able to explore the administrative side of the sport and shape the country’s football scene was what interested her.

She said: “Being here gives me the opportunity to put in these structures and see if my ideas work or not.

“It would be pretty awesome to see everything come to fruition.”

Coaching has long been a passion for Yip-Au, who picked up football while she was studying at Bowen Secondary School.

She got into coaching after her A levels, helping her school coach Yeong Sheau Shyan – now head coach of Women’s Premier League (WPL) side Lion City Sailors – with her school programmes and football academy.

Yip-Au continued coaching while pursuing a degree in material science and engineering at the Nanyang Technological University.

She helped with the national youth teams, and decided to make it full-time after graduation.

In 2019, the forward made the decision to stop playing to focus on coaching after a five-month stint with Australian club Monaro Panthers, where she also coached their Under-13 team.

It was a tough choice to make, but she felt she could make a bigger impact as a coach.

Working with youth from various backgrounds, including at-risk and low-income families, under Sport Singapore’s SportCares initiative, was what made Yip-Au sure that she wanted to make coaching her career.

She said: “Sometimes it’s not about football, at the end of the day you want them to become better people as well... I find that fulfilling.”

Yip-Au, whose most recent coaching stint in Singapore was as head coach of WPL club Still Aerion, knows that her two-year stint in Seychelles, off East Africa, will be entirely different from what she has done previously.

She is thankful for the support and opportunities given to her by the Football Association of Singapore and her club, but Yip-Au, who was also the women’s national U-19 head coach, is relishing this new challenge.

She estimates that there are fewer than 1,000 female players in Seychelles. She aims to build their talent pool by getting girls into football at a younger age, and to improve the national team’s ranking.

As an administrator, she also organises league competitions, carries out tasks such as coordinating referees for matches and even following up on incidents during games.

She said: “Last time when I was just a coach I could just criticise.

“But now I’m the one receiving the criticism, it’s important to take it objectively and make sure when my decisions are made, they’re objective as well.

“These are the things I’ve dreamt about doing – organising leagues and creating structures.

“So being able to do all this is a joy to me.

“I’m having fun.”