SINGAPORE – Seven years ago at the inaugural Youth Olympic Games (YOG) in Singapore, midfielder Hanafi Akbar, then just 15, thrilled the crowd at the Jalan Besar Stadium as he led the Republic’s Under-15 team to a historic bronze medal in the competition.

And next month at the South-East Asian (SEA) Games in Kuala Lumpur, Hanafi has set his sights on making history once again. The 22-year-old wants to drive the national Under-22 team to the country’s first-ever football gold medal at the biennial Games.

“The target (for the SEA Games) is simple. We’re going for gold, nothing less,” declared Hanafi.

It is a huge statement of intent, given that even Fandi Ahmad and V.Sundramoorthy were unable to achieve such a feat during their playing days.

The Young Lions have also found themselves lagging behind their regional rivals such as Thailand, Vietnam and even Myanmar in recent years.

Singapore’s last medal at the SEA Games was a bronze in 2013. In 2015, on home soil, they embarrassingly crashed out of the tournament at the group stages.

It will take a special effort by the Young Lions to win a medal, let alone a gold, in Kuala Lumpur, where they have been drawn in Group A along with Myanmar, Brunei, Laos and hosts Malaysia.

Thankfully for Singapore, in Hanafi, they have a player who has proven capable of winning games on his own.

Yet at the start of the year, Hanafi’s professional footballing career seemed to be going nowhere, and his hopes of representing the country one day seemed a pipe dream.

Having served a year in prison for drug offences, Hanafi began to pick up the pieces of his life and career following his release in the middle of last year.

He joined a social football team named Happy Feet United to get back into the game. Less than a year later, he had earned himself a professional contract with S.League side Balestier Khalsa in April.

But it was to get better for Hanafi.

A month later, he received the call up from national youth head coach Richard Tardy to join the national under-22s. He has not looked back since, establishing himself firmly as an integral part of the team.

However, Hanafi admitted that while he was initially happy to get the call-up, he began to feel apprehensive as his first training session with the team loomed closer.

“At first, when I got the call-up I was really excited,” said Hanafi.

“But before my first training session with the team, I began to feel really nervous. I knew that my life would change the moment I walked through the gates of the Geylang training field.

“Once I made that step, I told myself there’s no turning back from here. I cannot do whatever I did in the past…I must forget everything bad that I learnt and focus on giving my all for the team, the country, and the sport.”

Hanafi also credited his teammates in the national under-22s for making him feel welcome.

“I did worry about how my teammates would think about me given my history,” he said.

“But all of them have been brilliant. When I joined them, they immediately embraced me as one of their own, and it’s wonderful to feel that they appreciate me being in the team.”

Being able to represent the country has also given Hanafi a renewed purpose in life.

He said: “I feel blessed and thankful for the opportunity that coach Richard has given me. I never expected to be involved in the national set-up so soon…I was just taking it day-by-day, focusing on improving myself at Balestier and trying to be a better person and have a better life.

“But since I’ve joined the national under-22s, life has changed for the better. I’m more focused now, I know the pathway for me to reach the top and fulfil my potential is there for the taking, and I’m going to do whatever I have to do to get there.

“It has given me goals that I can work towards – to help Singapore to glory at the SEA Games, while in the longer term, to prove myself worthy of earning a senior call-up to the national team.”

While Hanafi is expected to bear the bulk of the creative burden of the Young Lions in their upcoming two competitions – the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) championship qualifiers and the SEA Games – he says that it will be only through teamwork that they can achieve any success.

“Maybe I have some skills in my bag that I can use to assist the team, but I need all my teammates as well for sure,” he said.

“It’s a team game, so without them I’m nothing. Thankfully, the players around me are class.

“When I look at the team, I think we’re in a good shape. Our biggest strength is our counter-attack because we have fast players, but we also have the spirit and confidence in ourselves.

“For several of us, including myself, this will the last time that we can play at the SEA Games…it’s our chance to show what we can do, so we’ll definitely go all out and I’m confident that we will be able to make history.”