Dear Singapore, your girls playing football want more than applause — they want momentum
Footballing pioneer Danelle Tan pens a letter to Singapore, reflecting on how the country was not built for girls like her and sharing her hopes for others chasing their dreams. She will feature in the series, Dear Singapore.
National footballer Danelle Tan (in grey T-shirt) spending time with a team from the Lion City Sailors Girls Academy.
This audio is generated by an AI tool.
Dear Singapore,
Yesterday, I saw a girl playing football at a park near my house. It was late, the kind of hour when dinner plates are cleared and day turns to night.
She was alone under floodlights, just her and a football, with her bicycle parked neatly by the park. She wasn’t doing anything fancy — just touches, turns, juggling. Focused. Steady. No phone, no coach, no noise. The quiet rhythm of practice.
I stood there for a while, not to intrude, but because she reminded me of someone I used to know. Me.
On weekdays after school. On Saturday mornings. And the times I had to spare. Sometimes my brother would join me. But oftentimes it was just me and a football — and a big, audacious dream.
You wouldn’t have looked twice at me then. A small, tan-skinned child on an empty pitch. No spectacle. No spotlight. Just one girl believing she could do something that hadn’t quite been done yet.
Singapore, you weren’t built for people like me. Not at first.
Not for the girl who wanted to play football professionally. Not for the girl who said “no” to the expected route and “yes” to a life on the move, on the margins, chasing something as uncertain as it was beautiful.
But Singapore was where it started. Where I learnt to fight through humidity and homework, where I learnt to run harder because no one thought I should even be on the pitch.
Where I learnt that dreams don’t always shout — they persist. Quietly. Daily. In floodlit parks and on concrete courts, in the early mornings and on aching legs. They keep going even when no one is watching. Especially then.
That’s what I wish more people knew about this life. Not the headlines or the milestones, not the signings or firsts. But the in-betweens.
The airports and cold nights in foreign cities. The games where your touch is off and the critics are loud.
The training sessions that test not only your body but your belief. The long walks home with your head down, wondering if it’s still all worth it.
And then you see a girl under floodlights, alone with a ball, and you remember why you started.
I’ve had the honour of being the first Singaporean woman to play in a European league. The first Singaporean to win a European league and cup title.
And every time I walk out onto a pitch, I do it knowing I carry more than just my own story. I carry the weight and wonder of every young girl who dares to believe that she can too.
That’s why I’m writing to you. Singapore, I don’t want applause, I want momentum.
I want little girls to stop being the exception when they show up on the pitch. I want them to be seen, supported, coached, celebrated — not after they leave the country but before.
Not after they win something, but because they dared to try. We need fields where girls don’t feel as if they’re intruding. We need coaches who see potential, not difference.
We need schools that nurture sport not as a side project but as a valid, vital dream.
Because that girl at the park yesterday? She’s already choosing this life. She’s already falling in love with the game in the purest way. And if we let her, she’ll go far.
Not because she’s trying to be the next me — but because she’s trying to be fully, wonderfully herself.
With love and hope,
Danelle
Danelle Tan, 20, is a striker in the national women’s football team. The documentary series Dear Singapore, featuring Singaporeans living out somewhat unconventional dreams, will premiere next month.
