Cardiff City footballer Perry Ng on his hope to honour late grandfather by representing S’pore
Why does English footballer Perry Ng want to play for Singapore?
Ng, 28, whose family stays in Liverpool in the UK, currently plays as a defender for Championship club Cardiff City in Wales, but has openly expressed his dream to represent Singapore on several occasions.
He bears a familial connection to Singapore as his paternal grandfather, James Ng, was born here before settling in Liverpool.
Recently, Ng was invited by the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) to come for a familiarisation stint with the men’s national team.
During his time here, Mothership spoke with Ng about his Singapore roots and what motivates him to represent our little red dot in international football.
Inspired by his grandfather
We met Ng after a training session, at Block 511 Bedok North Street 3 Market and Food Centre, where his grandaunt has run the 复兴记 (Original Fried Hokkien Mee) stall since 1978.
His relatives took up three full tables around him, as Ng, clad in a T-shirt and shorts, tucked into a meal of hokkien mee and satay.
When asked to share one interesting fact about himself, Ng said,
“If I was asked this in the UK, I’d tell people, ‘I’m Singaporean’. People always guess that I’ve got some [mixed heritage].”
His late grandfather James moved to Liverpool out of a love for the Beatles, Ng said.
There, he ended up finding a second love — Ng’s grandmother.
“He ended up staying there and opened a business manufacturing Chinese food, which my father still runs today,” Ng shared.
James was also the one who got Ng interested in football, bringing him to matches at Liverpool Football Club when he was young.
Ng’s favourite footballer is Liverpool midfielder Steven Gerrard. No surprises here.
He also previously attended tryouts for the Liverpool academy, when he was around five years old.
However, he opted for local club Crewe Alexandra and stayed in its youth system for 10 years prior to his professional debut in 2015.
Oddly enough, Ng says he never really had an ambition to play for the England national team.
“When I was younger, perhaps. But the more I got older, not really. I think people from Liverpool are a bit different than the rest of the UK. So we keep to ourselves, and we always say we’re Scouse, not English. It’s been more of a target of mine to play for Liverpool,” Ng admitted.
But it was around 12 years ago, when James passed away, that then-teenager Ng started seriously thinking about playing for the Singapore national team.
“I always felt like I needed to honour my grandfather and make him proud, and he never got to see me play professional football.”
Wants to represent family in Singapore
Another motivation for Ng is to be able to represent his family who are still in Singapore.
While James moved to Liverpool, most of his family remained here. In fact, around 20 of Ng’s relatives, aunties, uncles, and cousins alike, still live in Bedok.
So it’s a tradition to drop by the stall run by his grandaunt (James’s sister) for a meal when he’s back.
