After a season north of the Causeway, homegrown hero Anumanthan Kumar is back with the Lion City Sailors and slated to play in the AFC Champions League campaign.
Hello Anu, how’s it going?
It feels great! I’m enjoying being back in Singapore in domestic football and doing my small bit to help the game here.
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Welcome home! How does it feel like joining the Lion City Sailors and what does it feel like to be back?
I’m grateful to be a part of a club that is committed to growing professional standards in Singapore, and I feel very blessed to be surrounded by players and staff who have also embraced that same mindset – it definitely pushes me to expect more of myself.
I believe in what the club is doing, and it’s clear to me that we will continue to raise our standards to match those of the best professional clubs in Asia. I’m enjoying the ride too, that’s for sure.
How would you explain what a defensive midfielder does? I’m assuming it’s very physical but is there some kind of emotional aspect to it?
Emotionally speaking, a defensive midfielder should enjoy doing the “dirty job” for the team – and that generally means covering spaces and getting stuck into tackles to break up opposition attacks before they begin, and win the ball back so we can start attacks of our own.
That comes with the physical aspect of being tough and fit enough to make sure you’re able to consistently get to where you need to be for your team. But you’re right, the emotional aspect of being up for that physical battle is an important part of the job.
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There are of course different kinds of defensive midfielders in the modern game and that includes the deep-lying playmaker – the conductor of the team, so to speak, – who operates behind the attacking line and launches attacks like the artillery working behind the infantry.
But more common is the ball-winning midfielder, which is what I am — providing a shield for our defenders.
It’s been about 10 years since you started so how do you think you’ve progressed as a soccer player?
I’ve learned a lot about the game and how to manage different situations when these arise on the pitch. But perhaps more importantly, I’ve been blessed to have experiences that taught me important life lessons too. I spent only one year abroad in Kedah, but I drew so much from that experience.
You learn something new every day, and I think it’s valuable — both as a player and a person — to take each day as it comes and learn as much as you can from every experience you get.
What about when you received offers from almost every club in the S.League then? What do you think each of them saw in you?
It was flattering, of course, but I was also happy that the situation presented me with options to carefully consider my next move.
It’s really important to understand how you as an individual fit into the organisation that you’re going to join, and it’s perhaps more important as a footballer to know how you fit into the team and the system the coach envisions.
That was crucial for me, and I thought it was also important that I would be appreciated for what I brought to the table too.
Do you think you can reach a high that is well, higher than the one you experienced in 2018?
With more competitions come more opportunities to do exactly that. I’m looking to create new memories and hopefully achieve more with the Sailors, and with the positive approach to training that we have in the team now — the way we push each other — I’m confident that together we will be able to make great memories on the adventures we’ll have in the future.
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I read in an interview that you had quite a hard time growing up. What would the 27-year-old Anu like to say to the younger one?
To be honest, I would go back in time and tell the younger me to spend more time focusing on football and studying later [laughs].
Looking back, football has given me more than I imagined, especially living in a country like Singapore, and I’m grateful for all of it – even signing with the Sailors is another one of those opportunities that have come through football.
I’m grabbing every opportunity with both hands – and that’s exactly what I would tell my younger self.
To me, I feel like there’s a resurgence of homegrown soccer teams with a lot of excitement behind it. What do you think?
I think we’re living in a bit of a special time — and obviously, I believe in the Sailors project, and I definitely hope that as an entire football fraternity we can breathe new life into Singapore football.
To bring back what the S.League (it has now been rebranded to the Singapore Premier League) was in its early days, to have that feeling back again would be amazing. I can still remember watching some of my favourite players on tv as a young boy growing up — they were my heroes, really — wanting to be like them, and going out and trying to do exactly that. It would be fantastic if football can have that kind of inspirational effect on young Singaporeans again.
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Do you have specific things you do before you go onto the court?
All footballers have some sort of superstition or rituals. Mine are simple little things that help get me in the headspace of going out to compete: I put on my shorts before my shirt. I kiss my boots and say a little prayer before putting them on, then I make sure that I enter the field of play with my right foot first.
I read a quote that day that says “XXX didn’t lose the gold. XXX won the silver.” How do you take defeat?
I’m actually a bit of a sore loser, I don’t take defeat very well at all. We recently lost a league game, and I took things very hard on myself. It’s not that I’ve never lost a game before, but somehow this was different – it was a feeling I don’t think I will forget in a long time.
But these are lessons we all have to learn from, and sometimes a defeat or a setback is important to push your mind back onto the right track or even bring you back down to earth. I make it a point to learn from the lessons that life throws at me, and in this instance, the lesson is to realise that failure and defeat can be stepping stones to success, but only if you keep moving forward.
What do you think you’ve learned so far from playing with the Sailors? And what do you think you’ve taught them?
There is a very contagious winning mentality in the team that you immediately feel when you come in for training sessions. I think that is very special, and I’m soaking it all in.
I’m surrounded by a group of serial winners and I think I’ve learned a whole lot more from them than they have from me, that’s for sure.
Lastly, you’re about to play a really big match in April. Can you tell us how you honestly feel?
I’m really excited about our AFC Champions League campaign, especially because it will be the Sailors’ first campaign and mine too.
I can only imagine what to expect, but I think I need to feel and experience it in order to fully grasp what it’s really like – and I’m really looking forward to that.
Once you’re done with this story about Anumanthan Kumar of the Lion City Sailors, click here to catch up with our April 2022 issue!
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