Singapore goalkeeper Hassan Sunny's food stall sells out early thanks to Chinese football fans
Chinese football fans cleared out Hassan Sunny's family food stall and made online cash contributions after his World Cup qualifier heroics.
Members of Long Zhi Dui, a Chinese football fan group, stand in front of Dapur Hassan, Singapore goalkeeper Hassan Sunny's family food stall in Tampines, on Jun 12, 2024. (Photo: CNA/Davina Tham)
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SINGAPORE: Chinese nationals started waiting as early as 7.30am on Wednesday (Jun 12) at Dapur Hassan, a food stall in Tampines owned by Singapore goalkeeper Hassan Sunny that sells nasi lemak, lontong and other Malay dishes.
Everything sold out by 1.30pm - disappointed customers had to be turned away and even the sambal ran dry.
Hassan became an overnight celebrity on the Chinese internet after his heroics in a World Cup qualifier on Tuesday helped to keep China’s 2026 World Cup hopes alive.
Singapore lost their match against Thailand 3-1. But Hassan made 11 saves, denying Thailand - who needed to win by three goals - the chance to leapfrog China into second place in the group.
As a result, China will join group leaders South Korea in the final round of Asian qualifiers for the World Cup.
“Everyone in China, everyone on Douyin, Weibo, we would like to say thank you for you guys, for the Singapore team,” said Wang Huan, 38, a TikTok livestreamer who queued for up to 40 minutes with his daughter to get nasi lemak.
Chinese supporters gathered at the coffee shop included expatriates who have worked here for years, naturalised citizens and tourists who decided to drop by during their trips.
All told CNA that they learned about the stall at Block 144, Tampines Street 12 after netizens unearthed it in Hassan’s old social media posts and spread the news online.
Cheng Yue, 31, who works in tech, does not watch football but went to Dapur Hassan with his wife after hearing about it from friends on WeChat.
“They said you’re in Singapore anyway so just go to the stall and see what’s happening over there,” he said.
Dapur Hassan opened in August last year and is owned by Hassan. Daily operations are run by his wife, Aidah Rahim, and her two aunts.
Mdm Aidah, 41, said the first sign something was different came shortly after the Lions’ match in Bangkok on Tuesday night, when she and Hassan exchanged text messages.
“He did mention about this thing going viral. And he was actually quite shocked because there were numerous messages, emails and everything. It's a bit overwhelming for him to reply to each and every one of them,” she told CNA.
That night, money started being deposited into Dapur Hassan’s Alipay account even though the stall, which closes after lunch, was not open. This was so strange that Mdm Aidah and her husband thought it could be scam-related.
It was only when she got to the stall the next morning that a Chinese fan there explained the money was a sign of gratitude and support from people in China.
The fan also explained that Chinese people were sending money in sums using the digits “520” because this is a homophone for “I love you” in Mandarin.
Mdm Aidah said she had not had the time to total up the fans’ Alipay deposits and the stall’s earnings for the day.
“Today is a bit crazy actually. We have to keep on frying the chicken and egg,” she said.
A queue started forming around 9am and peaked at lunchtime. When CNA arrived at 2pm, many supporters were still there taking photos in front of the stall or talking to a livestream audience as they tucked into a bowl of lontong.
Mdm Aidah estimated that while she and her aunts usually cook two batches of rice a day, they had to cook four or five batches to feed Wednesday’s crowds.
She and her aunts will prepare a bit more food for the subsequent days, but are not planning to extend opening hours past 2pm.
The attention has been “a bit” disruptive, said Mdm Aidah, as their regular customers had to wait for a long time or were turned away after the food sold out.
But she thanked the Chinese fans, and added: “I’m sorry if there’s not much food left and it’s sold out very fast, because it’s unexpected crowds.”
She also said that Hassan, who was due back in Singapore from Bangkok on Wednesday, would be busy preparing for another match on Saturday.
China’s match with South Korea, which they lost 1-0, ended before Singapore’s match with Thailand on Tuesday night.
Chinese national Niu Chunxi, 35, said that tens of millions of eyes in China would have been trained on Singapore’s match with Thailand on Tuesday night.
He pointed out that apart from Hassan’s saves, the goalie was also given a yellow card for delaying the game in stoppage time. This contributed to denying Thailand a chance to widen its victory.
Mr Niu, who attended China’s fixture in Singapore in March, also said that the harmony between fans when China and Singapore played against each other stood in contrast to the friction between fans at China’s matches with South Korea and Thailand.
This contributed to Chinese fans’ good feelings towards Singapore and its football team, he said.
Members of Long Zhi Dui (“dragon’s team”), the local chapter of a Chinese football fan group, had hoped to show their support through a large dinner gathering at Dapur Hassan.
They were grateful to snap up 10 servings of nasi lemak at lunch instead, and said they would continue to drum up support for the stall.
Watching the qualifiers on Tuesday night was like “crossing a hill” through highs and lows, said 19-year-old university student Wang Jingchao.
“Last night, 1.4 billion people, all of China, became fans of Singapore’s football team,” he quipped.
Long Zhi Dui's leader Han Feng, 37, said that things felt hopeless after China’s defeat to South Korea.
“But as football fans, we fantasised that qualification was still possible. We could only place our hopes on the Singapore team,” he said.
