Mohamad Hanafi bin Mohd Akbar (born 7 February 1995) is a Singaporean 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 as 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 ...

for

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 and the Singapore national team.

Career

Youth career

Hanafi represented the Singapore national under-14 team at the

2009 Asian Youth Games 2009 Asian Youth Games, officially known as the 1st Asian Youth Games and also known as Singapore 2009, was a pan-continential multi-sport event held in the city state of Singapore from 29 June to 7 July 2009, with 90 events in 9 sports. The pl ...

, and was part of the national under-15 team which won the bronze medal at the

2010 Summer Youth Olympics The 2010 Summer Youth Olympics ( ta, 2010 கோடைக்கால இளையோர் ஒலிம்பிக் விளையாட்டுக்கள் ms, Sukan Olimpik Belia Musim Panas 2010), officially known as the I Summer ...

. He attracted interests from

Tottenham Hotspur F.C. Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. The team has playe ...

and Juventus F.C. for his exploits at youth level. However, he failed to capitalise on his talents, choosing the influence of bad company instead, Hanafi skipped training with the National Football Academy and quit the team in 2013.

Balestier Khalsa

He eventually signed a two-year contract with S.League club

Balestier Khalsa Balestier Khalsa Football Club is a Singaporean professional football club that competes in the Singapore Premier League. Founded in 1898, the club is considered as the oldest football club in the country. History Tracing their origins all th ...

in December 2013 after being written off as a "rebel" by many coaches. However, he was arrested for drug use in 2015 and was eventually sentenced for a year's imprisonment. Hanafi rejoined the Tigers in 2017 after his release and made his return to football in a S.League game against Garena Young Lions on 2 April 2017. Coming on as a half-time substitute, Hanafi showed his early promise by playing a part in his team's solitary goal of the game. Hanafi controlled the ball on his chest before sending a glorious cross-field volley to teammate Hazzuwan Halim, who squared the ball for Myanmar forward

Aung Kyaw Naing Aung Kyaw Naing (; born 20 December 1994) is a Burmese professional footballer. He currently plays for Bhutan Premier League club Druk Lhayul. Club career Aung started his career with Nay Pyi Taw FC. While playing for the club, he won the 20 ...

to slot home the winner from close range.

Honours

Singapore U15 *

Summer Youth Olympics The Youth Olympic Games (YOG) is an international multi-sport event for athletes between 15 and 18 years old, organized by the International Olympic Committee. The games are held every four years in staggered summer and winter events consisten ...

: bronze medalist, 2010

References

External links

* 1995 births Living people Singaporean men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Men's association football forwards Balestier Khalsa FC players Singapore Premier League players Footballers at the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics Competitors at the 2017 SEA Games SEA Games competitors for Singapore {{Singapore-footy-bio-stub