Benjamin Davis of Fulham, Singapore’s first Premier League player, gets military service deferment backing in petition
Tens of thousands call for military service deferment for 17-year-old Fulham midfielder Benjamin Davis, with Singapore’s deputy prime minister ridiculed
Singapore’s refusal to allow its first footballer signed to the English Premier League to defer compulsory military service has sparked a debate whether the rigidity of the country’s laws on conscription was stifling its youth from pursuing their dreams.
Benjamin Davis, who is 17, has signed a two-year contract with newly promoted Fulham, the first player from the Southeast Asian nation, who are 169th in Fifa’s world rankings, to join an English top flight club.
Nearly 20,000 have signed an online petition as of Friday, backing military service deferment for Davis so he can develop his talent.
On social media, there was ridicule of a Facebook post by Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam that congratulated France’s win at the World Cup as a victory for a football system where “every young person is encouraged and supported in developing his or her strengths”.
“I feel Ben Davis is exactly that young person that we should be encouraging and supporting,” Facebook user Olivia Choong, a Singaporean entrepreneur, said in reply.