Edwards is thriving after Singapore surprise and a brush with royalty
THE beautiful game is full of the language of war, with defences facing aerial bombardment and midfield battles to be won. But few aspiring players can wake up one morning to suddenly learn they face swapping their aspiring football career for a shock two-year spell in the army.
That was the case for Ryan Edwards, however, when a letter dropped through his door the day he turned 18 to summon him for national service in Singapore. That’s despite the Partick Thistle player, who was a young player at Reading at the time, never having owned a Singapore passport and only having lived in the country for a grand total of nine days.
‘I was born in Singapore because my dad, Alistair, was playing football there at the time,’ Thistle’s Player of the Month for September told Sportsmail.
‘My birth certificate says I was born on November 17, 1993, and I left Singapore on, say, November 26 to 27. But little did I know I would get a letter from the Singapore embassy on my 18th birthday telling me to report for two years of national service.
‘My dad tried to phone up and say that we had been told at the time I didn’t have to do it — but they insisted I had to.
‘My only option was to wait until I was 21 and renounce my citizenship. But that stopped me going to Singapore until I was 21.
‘And when I was 19, Reading sent me on loan to Perth Glory, and the club had a pre-season tour of Singapore and I couldn’t go, otherwise they would have been entitled to take me into national service.’
Renouncing his citizenship at 21 enabled Australian Edwards to go via Singapore in May to visit his dad, who was once on the books of Rangers and is now sporting director of Johor Darul Takzim II (JDT II) in Malaysia. If his mum was worried about him making the trip and being taken into the army, it turned out to be a visit to remember for altogether better reasons.
Edwards got involved in a kickabout with legendary former Manchester United and Chelsea midfielder Juan Sebastian Veron, as well as local royalty.
‘The owner of JDT is the Crown Prince of Johor,’ said Edwards. ‘And any time there are high-profile footballers in the area, he invites them to visit. I went there in the off-season and Veron was visiting and I got to meet and train with him.
‘The Crown Prince is very close with the owner of Valencia, too, and the Valencia players and coaches were over and I got to watch them train as well.
‘It was a brilliant experience. The Crown Prince is such a massive public figure. People look at him with awe. People are infatuated with him — and he’s a really good footballer, too…’
Last week, the latest big names in town to meet Edwards’ dad were Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs. Back in Glasgow, though, young Ryan was going one better than his father by playing a competitive game at Ibrox, Thistle losing 2-0.
‘My dad was buzzing for me to play at Ibrox,’ he added. ‘He played reserves for Rangers and watched the first team at Ibrox, so he knew all about the club.
‘He told me what to expect if Rangers went up to the top flight — but I was still blown away. I know we lost, but it was still an unreal experience.
‘We did our warm-up and the fans were not there. Then you come out of the tunnel and 50,000 have appeared out of nowhere.
‘The roar when we came out was just incredible. That’s the kind of atmosphere you want to play in every week.’
Now in his second season at Firhill, Edwards feels settled and, unusually for a 22-year-old, has been studying for his coaching BLicense at Broadwood Stadium in Cumbernauld this week, alongside team-mates Abdul Osman, Kris Doolan and Christie Elliot. Any other down time is spent learning French and Italian and he hopes to travel to put those skills to good use on his next break.
But his primary goal is to help Thistle off the bottom of the table after one win in seven. A longerterm by-product of excelling for Thistle would be winning full international caps with Australia.
‘People who’ve been watching Thistle will know we are performing well. There’s no time to panic,’ he said. ‘First and foremost, we want to stay in the league. But last season we just missed out on the top six and that is also a goal for us. I feel if we can get that first win, others will follow. ‘Playing for the Australian national team is something I would love to achieve. ‘In the last two or three training camps, players who have not won a cap but are playing regularly in Europe are getting called up, so that gives you hope and drive to make it happen for you as well.’