In this era of football, dominated for close to a decade by the monstrous figures of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, many a football fan will have at least one of the two great men nailed down as their idol, or inspiration. Indeed, with a combined total of 11 Ballon d’Or titles and a seemingly never-ending supply of goals and assists, it’s difficult not to worship these two giants of the game.
But not for Young Lions’ 20-year-old utility man, Ryhan Stewart.
“This might seem like a weird choice, but for some reason Dirk Kuyt was always my favourite player growing up!” the boyhood Liverpool fan tells Goal.
“My first memory of watching Liverpool was the 2007 Champions League final, which we lost to AC Milan, but Kuyt scored, so that was the guy I looked at, and saw him as a model player. Like me, he’s also really versatile, so I think it was a good choice!”
Having travelled the world extensively as a boy - living in Singapore till the age of eight, then spending the next four years in Dubai and the subsequent three in Finland before finally coming full circle in 2015 - the scenery around Ryhan has never been constant for long. But regardless of the ever-evolving setting he seemed to find himself in, one thing remained the same throughout.
“It’s always been my dream. Since I was a young boy, I’ve always wanted to be a professional footballer. When I moved abroad, I was always looking for clubs to play for, always looking to improve my football.
“The first football experience I can remember was when I was quite young. I used to live in this HDB flat in Tampines, and my dad would buy me those rubber balls from the shop below the block. The ones that would swerve everywhere! Yeah, I would just kick it around with my dad, below the block and just have fun,” he revealed. “I would play against my brother too, we were very competitive, and the loser would always go home crying!”
Moving to the UAE in 2008, Ryhan left behind the stressful environment of the Singapore education system, and joined Greenfield Community School, an international school in Dubai. That was where he really began to spread his footballing wings.
Ryhan Stewart
“In Dubai was when we started playing football more regularly, we played almost every day. We had more space to play, and had a lot of free time after school to just kick about together,” he explained.
“I feel school overseas is a bit less stressful than Singapore,” he continued. “In Singapore there are a lot of big exams, whereas I don’t remember taking any major exams until I moved back here and had to take my O Levels. I guess it’s also the type of school I went to. I was lucky enough to go to one which was not that stressful, so I would have a lot of time after school, I wasn’t just always studying, I was lucky enough to have extra time to just practice and improve my football.”
However, Ryhan would soon find himself right back in the Lion City, as his family made the decision to return home after seven years away.
“I joined Hong Kah Secondary School in secondary three. Obviously, it was a huge cultural change from living in Finland and Dubai. I hadn’t lived in Singapore for almost 10 years, so everything was different!” he chuckled.
Aside from playing for Hong Kah’s reputable school football team, Ryhan set out to find himself a club in the Singapore Premier League, or the S.League, as it was then known. He landed his first stint with a local club at Warriors FC, playing for their U-15 side, before moving to Home United’s U-17 setup in 2016, citing the much-heralded HYFA Academy as a decisive factor.
However, just a year later, he received an offer from Tampines Rovers to join their Prime League team, an irresistible offer for a 17-year-old to compete in the national U-21 league.
“That was a big step towards my professional career because during that year I got to train with the S.League team,” he added.
It seemed that Ryhan’s bouncing between clubs was finally over, and being the youngest member of the Stags’ Prime League squad in 2017, he looked set to make Our Tampines Hub his home for the foreseeable future.
The upward trajectory didn’t stop there. The following year, Ryhan was offered his first-ever professional contract by the Tampines management. It was an incredible moment for the then 18-year-old, and one which truly marked the beginning of his professional career, at a club as big as Tampines Rovers no less.
“It was a very exciting moment,” he enthused. “It was a dream come true, and I was just very excited, because I got to train every day with all these National Team players, like Farra (Mustafic Fahrudin), Daniel Bennett and also Jordan Webb, all these really good players. There were so many top players in that squad, I learnt so much from all of them. Incredible experience for myself, and a very exciting moment for my career.”
FAS
However, despite looking set for big things in the 2018 SPL season, Ryhan’s progression suddenly ground to an unexpected halt. He made the matchday squad in just six of Tampines’ league games that season, and failed to get on the pitch at all. It was a desperately disappointing time for the youngster, whose breakout season was not going to plan at all.
“My first season with Tampines I didn’t play a single minute, and it was a very tough year for me because I was just on the bench the whole year. I felt I trained very hard, and I felt I did well in training but I was never given the opportunity to show what I could do on the pitch,” he revealed.
And eventually, having failed to make the cut in the 2018 season, Ryhan was given the news no footballer wants to hear: his Tampines contract would not be extended.
“There was this meeting where they called all the players whose contracts were expiring, and one by one we had a meeting with Gavin Lee and the chairman. We came into a room with them and they told us they wouldn’t be renewing our contracts,” he recalled.
“That was the lowest point of my career. I was very demoralised, I felt like I could’ve stayed another year and had my breakout season at Tampines. It was very sad, I think I cried, man! I was so sad. It was heart-breaking.”
Despite the setback, Ryhan was far from discouraged.
He spent the subsequent weeks and months training on his own, working hard and playing football, desperate to prove that he had what it took to make it in the SPL. He began messaging coaches and other league clubs requesting a trial, hoping for a lucky break which would give him his pathway back into the game.
And soon enough, it arrived, albeit in the most unexpected fashion.
“I didn’t even contact Warriors,” he admitted. “My school (Temasek Polytechnic) played a friendly against them, and after the game the Warriors GM came up to me and asked if I had a club, because I think he remembered me from last season. I think I played quite well, so he said come along for training at Warriors. They offered me a contract!”
Balestier Khalsa had made a last-ditch attempt to sign him, asking him to come for a trial, but it was too late. Ryhan had put pen to paper on a one-year deal with Warriors, and was firmly back in business.
It’s fair to say, Ryhan’s second stint in professional football went nothing at all like the first. He started all but two of Warriors’ league matches in 2019, and played every minute of their run to the Komoco Motors Singapore Cup Final.
His excellent domestic form was rewarded when he was selected to represent Singapore Under-22 in their victorious 2019 Merlion Cup campaign, his first time pulling on the national jersey. But truth be told, he had a bigger fish to fry. It was an SEA Games year, and the teenager had his sights set on making that squad.
“Obviously, it was a huge moment for me,” he explained enthusiastically. “It was kind of a year’s journey with the U-22s, there was so much training, so many people in that camp. I remember when I found out, we were in a hotel for our training camp in Singapore. It was a big relief! I was super happy that I got called up for such a big tournament. One year of hard work had finally paid off when I made the team. I was so happy, I called my mum, I called my dad, and told them I made it.”
Despite a disappointing showing from the Cubs at the tournament, it was a decent outing for Ryhan, who held his own on the international stage against vastly more experienced opponents.
His stock had almost certainly risen during the tournament, and following the FAS’ decision to remove the Warriors from the 2020 SPL season, the versatile youngster was quickly snapped up by Young Lions ahead of the campaign. The move was one which would almost certainly require some huge adaptation on Ryhan’s part. Having been one of the youngest players at Warriors the previous season, he was now one of the most senior at Young Lions, and was expected to guide and nurture the younger ones. A sizeable responsibility had suddenly been placed on his shoulders.
“Yeah, it was quite a change!” he exclaimed. “Being one of the youngest player at Warriors, you have to do all the menial tasks, like collecting balls after training, washing the bibs, laying out the cones, putting them back, preparing water for everybody, and you don’t really say much, you just keep quiet and do the things that the senior players tell you.
"But here at Young Lions, I’m one of the more senior players, and I have to guide the younger ones, so it’s a bit of a challenge, but it’s a good thing - it’ll make me grow as a player and learn leadership.”
One of the youngsters he will be tasked to guide is none other than his younger brother Harhys, currently at Young Lions and in the first year of his professional career. Despite being just one year his junior, Harhys hasn’t had the chance to play alongside senior players or at the number of clubs Ryhan has, making him a lot more inexperienced by comparison.
“I think it’s good being on the same team with him. It’s his first year as a professional, so I can kind of guide him as well,” Ryhan explained. “At Young Lions, there are a lot of young players, and it’s a more comfortable environment. Senior players are very demanding. You make a mistake and you can get scolded, and it’s a very hard place for a young player to be.”
“It’s been fun with him, and we always have a bit of banter after training, if I did something to him, or if he beat me, I’m gonna keep hearing about it all the way home! But it’s been very good to have a brother who plays football as well, because he understands, and we both compete with each other, we keep each other in check,” he continued.
When quizzed on who he thought was the superior footballer, Ryhan didn’t have much doubt in his mind, though.
“I’m gonna say myself! He’s a good footballer too though,” he added with a laugh.
Instagram Harhys Stewart
From travelling the world to Fernando Torres heartbreak - The remarkable story of Young Lions utility man Harhys Stewart
Away from the football pitch, Ryhan has also made significant strides on social media, a platform he views as hugely important in modern football. Having recently graduated from a marketing course at Temasek Polytechnic, Ryhan revealed his choice of study was influenced by how valuable it could prove to be in aiding his football career. With over 51,000 followers on TikTok and 12,000 on Instagram, he’s amassed quite the following so far.
“I felt like studying marketing could help me both during my football career as well as after it, because especially modern footballers, you have to be able to market yourself and have your own personal brand,” he explained.
“The TikTok was originally started by Marc Ryan Tan, he got us big on there, and the rest of us just followed. We don’t really take TikTok too seriously, it’s a bit more light-hearted than say Instagram, which is more football-related.”
“I think social media is very important in raising the profile of the local game and its players, because the more people that know our players the more fans are gonna come to the stadium. Especially Young Lions, now there are a lot of new people watching us because of the social media virality that we had. A lot of people outside of the usual demographic of football fans, like young girls, are watching our games, which is quite surprising, because they would probably have never watched football if not for these TikToks!” he exclaimed.
“Myself, Ikhsan Fandi, Jacob Mahler and Riki Kimura have also created our own merchandise brand, called No Cap. There was this friend group we have and it’s called No Cap as well, and we always had an idea that maybe we should sell some stuff. YOLO right, we’re still young, and can take risks on these things,” he concluded.
Enlisting for National Service in the Singapore Police Force next month, it could be difficult for Ryhan to continue playing regularly over the next two years, especially given his combat-fit PES B1 status. However, his ambitions remain as fiery as ever, with clear aims having been set out to map the next few years.
“My short-term goal is to keep improving, keep playing and to be one of the best players in the SPL within the next three years,” he said. “After that, I wanna try to move out of Singapore, to go overseas and play maybe in Thailand or further overseas, like Japan or Europe.”
“My message to young players is to work hard, keep going. No matter what happens. Keep believing in yourself, regardless of what other people say. For myself, I didn’t make any youth teams until I was U-22, so it’s a long journey, and you just have to keep believing in yourself, keep working hard, keep grinding,” he said, concluding the interview.
.jpg?auto=webp&format=pjpg&width=640&quality=60)
.jpg?auto=webp&format=pjpg&width=640&quality=60)
