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MATT LE TISSIER IN SINGAPORE
MATT LE TISSIER, Le God, Legend flew into Singapore on 16th January 2003. He came to caddie for John Bland, a good friend taking part in the Caltex Masters.
Matt was accompanied by Carl (brother) and David Hirst (ex-Saints team-mate). They stayed at the Raffles, Singapore's most revered hotel. A class hotel for a class player, not to mention a class man - fitting!
The Saints in Singapore had known about Matt's visit from articles and full-page colour ads in the Straits Times. The organizers correctly described Matt as a celebrity, and said he was to take part in a celebrities' golf tournament for charity, and would hold a football clinic besides caddying for John.
SingaSaints tried to get in touch with Matt by e-mail as we wanted to meet up with him for a private autograph and photo session. However try as we might we just couldn't get through to him. We e-mailed Javi of Spanish Saints, Norman Bainbridge whose wife Yvonne works at the club, and even posted messages for help on the SaintsForever message board. But all to no avail! Matt was not an e-mail person and he would only ever surf the net to check his golfing schedule - one to file away for a trivia quiz!
Then someone heard or figured that Matt must be staying at the Meritus Mandarin as they were one of the tournament sponsors. That shot at goal turned out to be high, wide and handsome. All this while no one thought to ask the organizers which was the obvious thing to do. Finally Eric Ho did and the Caltex PR man, Mr Kelsen, proved a fountain of information.
Knowing for certain now that Matt was staying at the Raffles, we quickly drafted a note inviting the great man to an evening at the Saints Pub - specifically to watch the game against Liverpool.
I went to the hotel on Friday evening (17th Jan) and entrusted the note to the concierge who promised to hand it to Matt once he returned. Barely fifteen minutes later Peter Watkins rang me and said Matt had accepted the invitation! We frankly didn't expect Matt to be available on Saturday night as we thought the organizers must have arranged for him to give a live commentary on the Saints-Liverpool game which was live on cable tv. But no, the night we wanted Matt to be with us turned out to be his only "free" night.
The following day Dave and Debbie Loveridge and son Joseph, Zul and brother Ruzaini, Liu Jialong, Winston Chua and I went to the Laguna Golf and Country Club. Matt was taking part in the celebrities' tournament and we wanted to see if Matt could whack the ball with a club as well as he could with either foot. Some of us wore our Saints jersey. When Matt saw us approaching from a distance, he gave a "two-thumbs up". He was very friendly and obligingly had his picture taken with us. Can Le Tissier play golf? We are no judges but he LOOKED competent.
That night Peter Watkins, Wilson Wong, Foo Cheong Yong and I went in two cars to fetch Matt and his mates. Matt met us as arranged and we took advantage of the beautiful backdrop that was the hotel entrance and a helpful doorman to take some pictures. Afterwards two men who happened to be passing by approached and introduced themselves. They were Tim and Tom, a Saints fan and a Scouser respectively from England! They couldn't believe that they were seeing Matt Le Tissier in person and we couldn't believe that here were two English fans - desperately seeking a pub that showed the Saints-Liverpool game - at one on a Sunday morning! So Matt and his entourage of one - brother Carl (the rest had fallen asleep) - came on a historic visit to the Saints Pub.
The Saints Pub was full of Saints fans and friends-of-Saints-fans-who-are-not-themselves-Saints-fans-but-fans-of-Matt (if you know what I mean). The game was a bad one from Saints' point of view - we played badly, Liverpool finally played well and we lost one-nil. The mood during the game was strange - vibrant yet muted. Vibrant obviously because we had Matt with us and muted because 'Pool took an early lead and we never looked like equalizing.
Half-time was good for pictures and autographs and everyone seized the chance. After the game I presented to Matt on behalf of SingaSaints a Chinese seal (chop, not animal) engraved with Matt's name in both English and Chinese. Matt was thrilled to received such an unlikely gift and promised to "treasure it."
As Peter sent Matt back to the hotel, he said that if he wanted to be taken round the sights, we would be only too happy to oblige. Matt replied, "Thanks, I appreciate that."
The next and last time we saw Matt before he left Singapore was at a football clinic held at Toa Payoh Stadium. Sadly there was no one apart from us and one fan-of-Matt to witness God's gift to football.
Matt and David Hirst did the clinic together. Each had a mike through which they barked loud instructions. The lucky lads who participated were about 16-18 years old. We, a sad testament to the poor state of football fandom in Singapore, watched from the sideline.
During the teaching session, David was moving about among the players - he "got in" as they say in England. Matt on the other hand was standing and watching most of the time. I remarked to Carl, "Matt's not running much, is he?" To which Carl replied, "He never did, did he?" Touche!
A word about the trainees. I don't know who they were but if they represent the future of Singapore, I am mortified. David wanted to conclude the session with a goal and so he said, "Goal to finish." Someone on the right flank would cross the ball to two strikers who would then one of them put the ball in the net. There were NO defenders and just the keeper to beat. But try as they might the boys simply could not score. At least 25-30 crosses must have come in before someone finally put the ball in the net. All the other attempts were either dragged wide left or right of goal, chipped over the bar, blasted into outer space or perfectly played to the keeper. Someone quipped that Goal 2010 was the time needed to score a goal to end the training session! Matt and David of course tried their best to encourage the youngsters by repeating the phrase "smiles and goals." I will not mince words, that had better be the Pedra Branca Residents Under-16 'C' Team Reserves or Singapore football is in big big trouble.
Now the golden question: did Le Tissier display any wizardry at all? Yes, once. When the boys failed to score, he showed how. From the right bye-line, he curled the ball into goal, beating the keeper from the narrowest of angles.
The training session over - incredibly - we
met Matt for the last time. Being tongue-tied as Asians tend to be, we showed our affection, awe and admiration (and every other superlative I can't think of at the moment that begins with the letter 'a') by basically shutting up and grabbing the last opportunity to have our pictures taken with Matt and get his autograph. David, good Saints servant though he was, was practically ignored. Everyone was all over Matt who was as usual cheery, patient and friendly. We showed him a label we had designed for his tribute CD ROM and he liked it very much.
That was the last we saw of Le Tiss-Le God-LeGend and we wish him the very best for the future. For all the good he has done for Saints, we would gladly do anything for him. His present ambition, mundane though it might be, is to get his golf handicap down from five to zero. If only it were in our power!
Cody Wong
28-01-03
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