I recently spoke to Akbar Nawas, the new head coach of Singapore Premier League (SPL) club, Balestier Khalsa FC. It was part of the collaborative podcast – the first of its kind in Singapore – called Back Passt X Balestier Khalsa.
We spoke about his career, more specifically, about the upcoming SPL season.
Akbar, who was part of Fandi Ahmad’s coaching team when Lions XI played in the 2013 Malaysia Super League, has spent most of his coaching career overseas.
After a brief spell with Tampines Rovers in Singapore, he coached in the Philippines for Global Cebu for a year before creating history in India when he guided Chennai City to their first-ever I-League title in the 2018-19 season.
As luck would have it, the fixture sees Tampines Rovers as Balestier’s first opponent this season.
However, for Akbar, it is far from an emotional reunion as most of the staff, management, and ownership of the club had changed from the last time he was there.
He promises to entertain the fans of the club this season by delivering an exciting brand of football. However, he cautioned against setting expectations too high, as it will take time for his brand of football to be implemented.
The buzzword he used regularly in the interview was “unpredictable”. He aims to make his team tough to read on the pitch. He stopped shy of mentioning the team’s objective for the season, choosing instead to focus on taking it “one game at a time”.
He prefers to work on creating a winning mentality within the squad, rather than aim for tangible targets.
Listening to him speak has made me, a non-supporter of Singapore football, interested in checking out Balestier Khalsa this coming season.
It will be intriguing to see how Balestier plays this season as they could very well spring some surprises along the way.
This is the personal opinion of the writer and does not necessarily represent the views of Twentytwo13.
