An interview with Geylang United’s Michael King

An interview with Geylang United’s Michael King

by rick olivares

Rick Olivares: How did you find your way to Singapore? Have you been out of England before to play football? What is the difference between English and Asian/Singaporean football? How do you find Singapore (personally, I love the place and I go there as often as possible)?

Michael King: I had three years playing for Burnley FC, one as a professional. And after being released, I found it very hard to find a good club in England. A lot of clubs didn't have a lot of money and weren't willing to take a chance on a 19 year old. I was offered the chance to come for trials in October of last year, which I took, and then was signed by Mike Wong, Geylang's coach at the start of the season. And no, I haven't been outside of England to play before.

The main difference I've found so far is the heat and humidity. It makes it impossible to play fast flowing, exciting football for the full ninety minutes. Another big difference between the two cultures is that football is a way of life in England, where everyone is brought up playing and watching it, which I don't think is the same here. The more people that play and are interested the more chance you have of getting good players.

I love Singapore, it's a great place, and very easy to live here. It's my first time visiting Asia, and I was a bit apprehensive at first, but I settled in very quickly, and really enjoying my time here.

Rick: Geylang, I understand is having some financial problems, hence its inability to sign more top tier players. Is that true? Why is the team struggling right now?

King: To be honest, I have no idea about the financial situation of the club, it's not really my place to be aware of it either, I just have to concentrate on playing football. 

We had a tough start, and we weren't playing good football, culminating in the sack of our coach Mike Wong, since then there's been a transition period as our new coach Kanan has tried to instill his football philosophies and we've started to play better football. But we just haven't had the luck in recent matches. I'm confident we will have a good second half of the season though and start to climb up the table.

Rick: Loyola has three Fil-Brits in Phil and James Younghusband and Mark Hartmann. Do you know anything of your opponent in the first round?

King: I'd never taken much interest in any football around Asia until I moved here. I'm still trying to get to grips with football in Singapore so I know very little about Loyola Meralco and of their players. It will be nice to see hear some British accents though, and I'm sure they're good players too.

Rick: How do you think the match with Loyola will turn out?

King: It's very hard to call knowing very little about the opposition, but the team has been playing well of late, so I would be confident going into any match at minute, but I'm sure it's not going to be an easy game.

Rick: The last match against SAF was played in the afternoon heat. Have you adjusted to playing in such a humid atmosphere?

King: That's the toughest thing about playing here is the heat, especially coming from a country where the temperature is generally cold, but I've got more used to it as the season has progressed.

Rick: That was a good result, 2-2 with SAF. Do you think you will carry this good result the rest of the way? I know it's not a win but it did arrest a losing skid.

King: The game last night was a good result as we'd had two consecutive defeats, yet, again we played well and I think we could have easily taken all three points, so from that view it's disappointing.