Sports Minutes: Zharfan Rohaizadon his Sailors stint, Stags move and the elusive Lions call-up

**SPEAKER_1** (0:01)
Sports Minutes with Zia-ul Raushan on MoneyFM 89.3.

**Zia-ul Raushan** (0:05)
MoneyFM 89.3, it's time for Sports Minutes with me, Zia-ul Raushan. In football and in life, you sometimes struggle to find a happy place. From flourishing at Tanjung Pagar, to languishing on the bench at the Lion City Sailors, Haogang provided a brief happy place. But now, Zharfan Rohaizad is a stag. Will the Rovers prove to be the correct fit? Time will tell and hopefully so will he, because joining me on the show is Zharfan Rohaizad. Zharfan, welcome to the show. How are you doing?

**Zharfan Rohaizad** (0:33)
Hello, hello. I'm good. I'm good. Thank you for having me here. Happy to share my experiences and my vision for the upcoming season.

**Zia-ul Raushan** (0:42)
Yeah, plenty to get stuck into in terms of vision as well as your experiences. There's only one place to start though and that's the move to BG Tampines Rovers. The obvious question I have to ask is why?

**Zharfan Rohaizad** (0:53)
Well, to be honest, it was a no-brainer for me. I've spoken to Tadanari about the move, so it went on for a couple of weeks.
And he shared with me all his visions and all his ambitions for the club. To me, it was a no-brainer in terms of having the amount of competitions they are participating, how they are as a club, the history and what they've achieved last season. So to me, it definitely ignited something in me to just go for it. So I think it's, like I said again, a no-brainer.

**Zia-ul Raushan** (1:26)
And does it help that you studied at Temasek Poly, so Tampines is sort of part home?

**Zharfan Rohaizad** (1:31)
Yeah, honestly, when I was young, I grew up in Tampines mostly with my grandmother. So to me, it's not a foreign place.
Yeah, I know ins and outs. And yeah, currently now I'm staying in Pasir Ris, so why not?

**Zia-ul Raushan** (1:45)
I've long said East Side, Best Side. You brought up Tadanari Lee, right? He's a hard man to catch. Some interviews are in Japanese as well. So things get lost in translation. Only right, I ask you, what is that vision that he sold to you for Tampines? On the footballing front, I think listeners as well as me can see it, but what's in store for the season ahead?

**Zharfan Rohaizad** (2:02)
Yeah, with the exciting new signings, like you see Seah coming back, Shodai, it's a hard man.
He did really well at Geylang last year. Yeah, and the couple of local boys, I don't need to mention who. So to me, it's a big club. And why do I say no to a big club? And for his visions, like you see that's Tropicup, ACL2. Like I look at where they are, how they played last season. And I'm sure they can do again even better. I feel like with the experience they had, they can bring on to this season. And to me, it's no other player would say no to this.

**Zia-ul Raushan** (2:41)
And Zharfan, you're a man who's on social media, I'm sure, right? With regards to your announcement for the club, before the club made it official, they sort of put out a training video where you were caught running at our Tampines Hub. I'm sure you've clocked it as well. We're laughing. What do you make of the whole thing?

**Zharfan Rohaizad** (2:57)
Yeah, I mean, it's a public space.
Yeah, I saw a couple of guys who were taking photos and all that. I mean, it's inevitable. You can't run away from this. Sooner or later, people will know anyways.

**Zia-ul Raushan** (3:08)
Yeah, you're right. The fraternity is quite small. We live in an era where there's plenty of ITKs in the nose, right? The Twitterverse or X-verse, whatever you want to call it, is filled with them. Zharfan, not to take the smile away from your face, but truth be told, Tampines Rovers hasn't exactly been a happy place, especially for local players, last season. Was that at all a concern when you considered this move?

**Zharfan Rohaizad** (3:29)
Yeah, it was one of it.
With the changing of landscape in Singapore, like as you know, the foreign keepers are coming in, but Tadanari assured me that we are still sticking to local goalkeepers. So to me, that wasn't a worry. So it's me and Zharfan. So it can be a good and healthy competition with him. So to me, I'm not worried.

**Zia-ul Raushan** (3:52)
Thank you for bringing up Shazwan, because in my mind, right now, based on current circumstance, he's firmly National Team number two, right? I'm sure we'll talk about your National Team ambitions later, but having the National Team number two ahead of you, based on longevity, is that a concern in terms of game time?