With his options exhausted, Nabeel joined his family on holiday in the United Kingdom and returned on May 9, 2003.
Nearly 20 years to the day since Sars forced his return, CNA Insider caught up with him to find out how the experience shaped his football aspirations — and his life.
FROM FOOTBALL TO FLYING
Even after the disappointing trip to England, Nabeel felt all was not lost and continued to be buoyed by youthful optimism.
Sutton had said in his letter that the club would like to invite Nabeel to visit once Sars was under control. In a separate letter, the then academy director, Ray Hall, said the same and suggested sometime in September or October 2003.
This kept Nabeel “very, very hopeful” that the club would call when the Sars situation improved. On May 30, 2003, the World Health Organisation declared Singapore to be Sars-free.
But “the better time didn’t happen”, and the call never came, he said. Soon afterwards, he was called up for National Service.
With a spot in Singapore’s national under-18 team at the time, he took things in his stride. “We had a couple of tournaments lined up, (and I thought), just work hard, you never know if there’ll be scouts coming,” he said.
He continued to play football during NS. While doing his basic police training, he got a call from the Police Sports Association (SA) to prepare for the World Police and Fire Games in 2005 in Quebec, Canada.
“It’s like the Olympics for the police and firemen; there were so many sports. We were treated like Olympians,” Nabeel recalled. “I felt, ‘Wow, I get to skip (part of NS training and) go overseas. … Very fortunate.’”
He trained with Police SA in the Division One League, followed by Home United in the S.League.