Benjamin James Davis (born 24 November 2000) is a Thai professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays for Thai side

Port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Ham ...

, on loan from

League One The English Football League One (often referred to as League One for short or Sky Bet League One for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League One from 2004 until 2016) is the second-highest division of the English Football Leag ...

club

Oxford United Oxford United Football Club is a professional football club in the city of Oxford, England. The team plays in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The chairman is Grant Ferguson, the manager is Karl Robinson and th ...

. He has played for the Thailand under-23 team.

Club career

Davis started his professional career training at JSSL Singapore, a youth soccer academy owned by his father based in Singapore that has partnerships with

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandsworth ...

and

Singapore Premier League The Singapore Premier League, commonly abbreviated as SPL, officially known as the AIA Singapore Premier League for sponsorship reasons, is a men's professional football league sanctioned by the Football Association of Singapore (FAS), which re ...

side

Tampines Rovers Tampines Rovers Football Club is a professional football club based in Tampines, Singapore, that competes in the Singapore Premier League, the top tier of Singapore football league system. Founded in 1945, the club have won the national league ...

. He later joined the

Football Association of Singapore The Football Association of Singapore (FAS) is the governing body responsible for the administration of football in Singapore. Established in 1892 as the Singapore Football Association (SFA), it is the oldest football association in all of As ...

's (FAS) Junior Centre of Excellence, and went on to represent various national age group teams. In 2017, Davis earned a two-year academy scholarship with Fulham after impressing in trials. He was the first ever Singaporean player to sign for a Premier League side. In his first season, Davis made 10 appearances for the club's under-18 South League team, scoring a header against West Ham's Under-18 side and recording a passing accuracy of 90 percent. In 2018, Fulham announced that Davis, alongside other academy players, were offered professional contracts, where they would now earn a weekly wage as well as continue to play for the club's Under-18 and Under-23 side. He signed his first professional Fulham contract in June 2017 and is listed on the club's website as an English national. On 13 October 2019, Davis confirmed that he had registered to play as a local player with the

English Football Association The Football Association (also known as The FA) is the governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest football association in the world and ...

Oxford United

On 31 August 2021, Davis joined

side

on a two-year deal. In August 2022 he was sent on a season-long loan to Thai club

Port F.C. Port Football Club ( th, สโมสรฟุตบอลการท่าเรือ), formerly known as Port Authority of Thailand F.C. or Thai Port F.C., is a Thai professional Association football, football club based in Khlong Toei distr ...

International career

Davis currently holds passports from the United Kingdom, Thailand, and Singapore but represents Thailand internationally. During his training stint with JSSL Singapore and FAS Junior Centre of Excellence, Davis represented

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

in several 2016 AFC U-16 Championship qualifiers in 2015. In 2017, Davis earned a call-up to Singapore's under-19 side to play in several 2018 AFC Under-19 Championship qualifiers. In 2018, Davis received a surprise call-up to the senior Singapore national team for a run of AFC Asian Cup qualifiers, but he did not play in any of the matches. In September 2019, Davis was called up to the Thailand under-23 national team for the

SEA Games The Southeast Asian Games, also known as the SEA Games, is a biennial multi-sport event involving participants from the current 11 countries of Southeast Asia. The games are under the regulation of the Southeast Asian Games Federation with supe ...

training camp. In 2020, Davis represented

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

at the

2020 AFC U-23 Championship The 2020 AFC U-23 Championship was the fourth edition of the AFC U-23 Championship, the biennial international age-restricted football championship organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for the men's under-23 national teams of Asia. ...

, appearing in a 1–1 draw against Iraq in the group stage as well as a 1–0 loss to Saudi Arabia in the quarter final, cap-tying him to Thailand. In 2022, he was called up to the U23 team for the

2022 AFC U-23 Asian Cup The 2022 AFC U-23 Asian Cup was the 5th edition of the AFC U-23 Asian Cup (prior to 2021 known as the AFC U-23 Championship), a biennial international age-restricted football championship organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for the ...

Personal life

Davis was born in

Phuket Phuket (; th, ภูเก็ต, , ms, Bukit or ''Tongkah''; Hokkien:普吉; ) is one of the southern provinces (''changwat'') of Thailand. It consists of the island of Phuket, the country's largest island, and another 32 smaller islands of ...

, Thailand, and migrated to Singapore at the age of five with his family. Davis studied at the

Singapore Sports School Singapore Sports School (SSP) is a specialised independent boarding school and statutory board under the purview of Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth of the Government of Singapore that offers an integrated sports and academic programme t ...

from 2013 to 2015 before moving to London's

Harrow High School Harrow High School is a co-educational academy in the London Borough of Harrow and a specialist Sports College. It was previously called Gayton High School and Harrow County School for Boys. The school has a sixth form for post-16 studies part ...

in 2016. In 2017, he was awarded a two-year scholarship with Fulham's academy. Davis is the second-youngest of four children. His mother, Sopee Davis, is Thai, while his father, Harvey Davis, is English.

National service evasion

As a Singaporean citizen, Davis was to be conscripted under the city-state's

national service National service is the system of voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act 1939. The l ...

scheme upon turning 18. His application for deferment to develop his professional career as a footballer with Fulham was rejected by the

Ministry of Defence {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in states ...

(MINDEF) as he did "not meet the criteria for long-term deferment from full-time NS". His father drew parallels to

Joseph Schooling Joseph Isaac Schooling (born 16 June 1995) is a Singaporean professional swimmer who specialises in butterfly, freestyle and medley events. He was the gold medalist in the 100m butterfly at the 2016 Olympics, achieving Singapore's first ev ...

, a national swimmer who was granted deferment and went on to win Olympic medals. MINDEF countered that Davis' contract with Fulham was no different from other pre-enlistees' personal pursuits and a further appeal supported by the

(FAS) was also denied. The ministry also said that Davis did not meet the criteria for long-term deferment due to it being a personal pursuit, and that it was unfair to other pre-enlistees who served their NS commitments. It further added that the deferment rejection was also based on grounds that Davis' father "would not commit to a date" on when his son would return to Singapore to serve NS, coupled with subsequent remarks to the media that he would encourage his son to renounce his Singapore citizenship in order to pursue his career. On 11 January 2019, Davis failed to report for national service and since 18 February 2019 has been deemed as a defaulter. While the FAS had previously supported Davis' deferment application, they condemned his decision to not return. In October 2019, Davis eventually chose to represent Thailand and declared he would not return to Singapore despite being a citizen, and had no intentions to fulfill his national service obligations.

International statistics

Singapore under-16 international caps

Singapore under-19 international caps

Thailand under-23 international caps

International goals

Honours

Thailand U-23 *

Southeast Asian Games The Southeast Asian Games, also known as the SEA Games, is a biennial multi-sport event involving participants from the current 11 countries of Southeast Asia. The games are under the regulation of the Southeast Asian Games Federation with supe ...

Silver medal:

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

References

External links

Ben Davis
at soccerway.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Davis, Ben 2000 births Living people Ben Davis Ben Davis Ben Davis Singaporean footballers Ben Davis Singaporean people of Thai descent Singaporean people of English descent Naturalised citizens of Singapore Association football midfielders Thai expatriate sportspeople in England Fulham F.C. players Oxford United F.C. players Ben Davis Competitors at the 2021 Southeast Asian Games Southeast Asian Games medalists in football Ben Davis