Singaporeans may be a little miffed with our local football team after last week’s poor showing against the South Koreans and losing to Thailand yesterday (June 11) 1-3.
But for Lions goalkeeper Hassan Sunny, he is now the toast of Chinese football fans, with many hailing him as a hero after he prevented Thailand from scoring more then three goals against Singapore.
This has allowed China to advance to the next round of World Cup qualifiers.
Since the match, the 40-year-old has trended on Chinese social media platforms such as Douyin, Weibo, and WeChat, allegedly crashing the sites for a bit as Chinese netizens surfed for more information on him.
A quick check on Hassan’s Instagram also showed multiple comments in Mandarin praising his good looks, with one writing a short bio on his age, height and, career highlights.
“Bro saved China!” wrote an appreciative netizen while another proclaimed Hassan as a “great benefactor of Chinese football” and “The world’s best goalkeeper”.
In a bid to show their gratefulness, some even went as far as to earmark his nasi padang hawker stall, Dapur Hassan in Tampines, as a must-visit for Chinese tourists.
Google Maps also showed the spillover effect from going viral overnight with more than 70 five-star reviews in the last 12 hours alone.
“Although I haven’t been there, the player’s food must be delicious!” said one review while another commented, “I’m hungry and I now want to go to Singapore for coconut rice”, wrote a netizen.
According to comments on Reddit, some even took their support to the next level by allegedly taking snapshots of Dapur Hassan’s QR code to transfer money via Alipay.
We wonder what Hassan thinks about his sudden popularity with the Chinese.
Singapore football fans naturally gave their take on his instant celebrity status saying, “Things are looking bright for Sunny!” while others advised Hassan to strike while the iron is hot and consider live streaming in China.
Now shouldn’t we show our local boys more love here too?