Goh Tat Chuan (; born 6 February 1974) is a former

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, bor ...

football player. A

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

, he spent most of his time at

Woodlands Wellington FC Woodlands Wellington Football Club is an inactive professional football club which played in the S.League, the top division of football in Singapore. They are based in Woodlands at the 4,300 seater Woodlands Stadium, where they have played sinc ...

and was the 10th captain of the club. Goh is currently the record holder for the most appearances for Woodlands with 138 appearances. He graduated from St Joseph's Institution and the Nanyang Technological University and was one of the few players in the Singapore national soccer team to have a degree. During his time in the

S-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 ...

, his passing skills and ability as a holding midfielder earned him a reputation as one of the best midfielders in the league and even in the region. Goh retired from professional football on 6 January 2007 to concentrate on his career as a commercial engineer.

Club career

A software engineer, Goh pursued his football passion on a part-time basis by making his

S.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 ...

debut in 1996 with Sembawang Rangers. When

Jurong FC Jurong Football Club was a professional football club, based in the Jurong area of Singapore. The club played in S.League, the top division of football in Singapore from 1997 to 2003. The team's best league finishes in this period were fifth p ...

entered the

1997 S.League The 1997 S.League was the 2nd season of the S.League, the top professional football league in Singapore. The format of the league was changed, a single season of home and away matches replacing the split seasons and a playoff model of the 1996 s ...

, Goh made the switch over to the Cobras where he played for three seasons. It was his convincing performances in the middle of the park for

Jurong Jurong () is a major geographical region located at the south-westernmost point of the West Region of Singapore. Although mostly vaguely defined, the region's extent roughly covers the planning areas of Jurong East, Jurong West, Boon Lay, ...

which prompted

coach Barry Whitbread to call him up to play for the Singapore national team in 2001. Having made his name as a no-nonsense anchorman at

, Goh moved to rivals

Woodlands Wellington Woodlands Wellington Football Club is an inactive professional football club which played in the S.League, the top division of football in Singapore. They are based in Woodlands at the 4,300 seater Woodlands Stadium, where they have played sin ...

in time for the

2002 S.League 2002 S.League was the seventh season of Singapore's professional football league. It was won by Singapore Armed Forces The Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) are the military services of the Republic of Singapore, responsible for protecting and de ...

season together with fellow Cobra A. Siva Kumar. It was at

Woodlands Woodlands may back refer to: * Woodland, a low-density forest Geography Australia * Woodlands, New South Wales * Woodlands, Ashgrove, Queensland, a heritage-listed house associated with John Henry Pepper * Woodlands, Marburg, Queensland, a her ...

where Goh's career really flourished. Following the departure of Simon Clark at the end of the 2004 S.League season, Goh was handed the captain's armband, becoming the tenth captain in

' history i the process. He continued to play for Woodlands and made a total of 138 appearances for the Rams until his retirement in early 2007.

International career

A player with impeccable

vision Vision, Visions, or The Vision may refer to: Perception Optical perception * Visual perception, the sense of sight * Visual system, the physical mechanism of eyesight * Computer vision, a field dealing with how computers can be made to gain und ...

on the field, Goh made his international debut for the

Singapore Lions Singapore FA was a representative team of footballers representing the Football Association of Singapore in domestic competitions run by the Football Association of Malaysia. This is separate from the Singapore national team. As it permits ...

on 22 May 2001 in a friendly against

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. He played in both the 2002 and 2004

Tiger Cup The ASEAN Football Federation Championship (less formally the AFF Championship or AFF Cup), currently known as the AFF Mitsubishi Electric Cup for sponsorship reason, is the primary association football tournament organized by the ASEAN Footbal ...

s and was notably sent off in the second group match against Laos in 2002. Singapore was subsequently knocked out at the group stage of the tournament. However, he redeemed himself in the 2004 edition after forming a remarkable partnership in central midfield alongside Hasrin Jailani as Singapore won the tournament that year. In 2006, he had a feud with national team coach, Radojko Avramovic, after he was dropped from the national team after failing to observe a curfew together with his

teammate,

Masrezwan Masturi Masrezwan bin Masturi (born 17 February 1981) is a Singaporean footballer currently playing for Home United in the S.League. Club career Masrezwan started his career with Woodlands Wellington, before moving to Singapore Armed Forces during h ...

."Two Lions axed",The Straits Times, 21 February 2006, Page 2 This cause a huge uproar as the two players were dropped two days before the Asian Cup qualifying round opener against

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...

. Because of his refusal to give Avramovic a public apology, he was never picked to play for the national team again since that incident.

Honours

International

Singapore *

ASEAN Football Championship The ASEAN Football Federation Championship (less formally the AFF Championship or AFF Cup), currently known as the AFF Mitsubishi Electric Cup for sponsorship reason, is the primary association football tournament organized by the ASEAN Football ...

: 2004

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Goh, Tat Chuan 1974 births Living people Singaporean footballers Singapore international footballers Singaporean sportspeople of Chinese descent Saint Joseph's Institution, Singapore alumni Place of birth missing (living people) Sembawang Rangers FC players Woodlands Wellington FC players Jurong FC players Association football midfielders Singapore Premier League players