It is 9am on a Friday (June 14) morning and Singapore goalkeeper Hassan Sunny’s nasi padang stall in Tampines already boasts a snaking queue.
Yes, Singapore might have lost to Thailand 1-3 on Tuesday (June 11), but the love Maninland Chinese football fans have for the 40-year-old is still going strong.
Especially after he made 11 saves to deny Thailand – who needed to win by three goals – a chance to move into the next round of World Cup qualifiers.
This allowed China to keep its spot with South Korea.
Hassan became an overnight celebrity with the Chinese, many of them lauding his skills on the field, even christening him a “king of football”. Some of them also praised his good looks.
Then there are those who even turned up at Jurong East Stadium to watch Hassan training with Albirex Niigata Singapore FC.
But many Chinese fans took their gratefulness to another level by earmarking his nasi padang stall as a must-visit for tourists.
Those who were unable to make a trip down also started distributing snapshots of Dapur Hassan’s QR code to transfer money via Alipay.
However, it has since come to Hassan’s attention that scammers looking to make a quick buck have started altering or sending out fake Dapur Hassan’s QR codes online.
In a post written in Mandarin on Thursday night (June 13), Hassan started by thanking everyone for their support saying, “I have fully felt the enthusiasm of Chinese fans.”
Hassan went on to share about the tampered QR codes before imploring everyone to support him “rationally” and to “stop transferring money [to him] through the Internet”.
He ended the post with “I believe we will meet soon.”
Hassan’s post was flooded the comments with many translating the message for those who can’t read Mandarin.
“Bro single-handedly introduced nasi pandang to China,” wrote one netizen.
His Lions teammate Irfan Fandi was seen leaving this request: “One nasi lemak bro”.
In an interview with CNA, Hassan described the past few days as “awesome for me, because it’s something I’ve never experienced before”.
“I’ve been receiving thank you messages… like they’re calling me ‘father’ and some calling me ‘God’ and stuff,” he added.
Hmm… does Hassan mean ‘daddy’ instead?
Hassan also said the money received so far will probably go into his savings and he may consider expanding Dapur Hassan.
However, his focus at the moment is his football career.
“This [love from Chinese fans] will die down soon,” he said, but he is enjoying it while it lasts.