Indra Sahdan Daud

Indra Sahdan
	Indra on 30 March 2010
Personal information
Full name	Indra Sahdan bin Daud
Date of birth	5 March 1979 (age 45)
Place of birth	Singapore
Height	1.72 m (5 ft 7+1⁄2 in)
Position(s)	Striker
Team information
Current team	Home United FC
Number	19
Senior career*
Years	Team
1998–2000	Geylang United
2001–2008	Home United
2008–2009	Sengkang Punggol
2010–2011	SAFFC
2012–	Home United
International career‡
2000–	Singapore
	*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of January 30, 2010; ‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of October 31, 2009

Indra Sahdan bin Daud (born 5 March 1979 in Singapore) is a professional footballer who is currently playing for Home United FC as a striker.

Club career

Sahdan started out his professional playing career, graduating from the academy ranks of Geylang United FC at the Bedok Stadium in the S.League.

He became the first local player to score 100 (total) S.League goals in 2003 and also became Singapore highest paid local player when he extended his contract with Home United in the same year.

He has a knack for scoring against top teams such as Manchester United, Uruguay, Japan and Denmark among others. He also had a training stint at Chelsea FC in 2003 as part of a deal with Emirates Airline.^[1]

He is the face of Nike (Singapore) together with other national team players like Khairul Amri and Hariss Harun as part of Nike's advertising campaigns such as the 2007 Asean Football Championship, formerly known as the Tiger Cup and also the launch new national teams.

On 11 July 2007, it was reported in a local tabloid that Sahdan had been offered trials from Melbourne Victory and Real Salt Lake^[2] but after weeks of speculation, nothing came out of it.

In 2008, Sahdan was having problems scoring for Home United with just 10 goals in the league all season. After the AFF Suzuki Cup, Indra's contract with Home United expires. He then went for a trial with a Vietnamese club but returned to Singapore, joining Sengkang Punggol wearing the jersey number 9. Indra was handed the armband temporarily as regular captain Aide Iskandar was promoted to caretaker coach. He was then signed by SAFFC for the 2010 and 2011 S-League season.

Trials with Real Salt Lake

Sahdan underwent a successful trial with the American MLS club Real Salt Lake in Miami, Florida from 14 to 24 Feb 2008; scoring two goals in four starts. The Home United striker is then invited to join Real Salt Lake on their two weeks pre-season tour to Rosario, Argentina, beginning on 1 March, for three exhibition matches. This invitation comes in view of the MLS side offering Indra a contract for the upcoming season, however Ingra suffered with a knee injury in Argentina, which proved costly.

Prior to the trip to Argentina Sahdan's friend, Dave Roberts^{[disambiguation needed]}, who helped arrange the trial was quoted to describe Indra's chances of getting the contract as "very good", after his conversation with the club's general manager, Garth Lagerway. If the transfer went through, Sahdan would have become Singapore's only third footballer to be playing outside of Asia, following Fandi Ahmad and V. Sundramoorthy. However, Sahdan was not offered a contract by RSL coach Jason Kreis.^[3]

Sahdan had trials with two Vietnam League clubs and one First Division club. He returned to Singapore on 4 January 2009, in view of securing a contract in Vietnam. Speculations have been made that Sahdan would not be signing with any S-League teams for 2009 season, and he might head to Hyundai A-League for 2009. He is supposed to join the national team on 5 January for the centralised training before the Asian Cup Qualifiers against IRAN.

International career

He made his debut for the Singapore against Kuwait on 26 April 1997.

Singapore's most consistent goalscorer since the retirement of Fandi Ahmad in the mid-1990s, Sahdan is a firm fan favourite for his knack of finding the net in big games.

Considered one of Singapore's best strikers, albeit one of the best in Southeast Asia, Indra was part of the squad that won the Tiger Cup for Singapore in 2005 and 2007.

He scored the crucial goal in the home leg of the Asean Football Federation Championship, which Singapore ended up winning for their first title since 1998.

During 2001 in Singapore, as part of Manchester United's pre-season Far East Asia tour, Sahdan was the scorer of Singapore XI's only goal in their 1–8 defeat to United at the Singapore National Stadium.

He has notched goals against the likes of Uruguay and Manchester United, but perhaps his most memorable was against Japan in 2004.

A swivel, burst of pace and devastatingly accurate shot gave Singapore an equaliser in that World Cup qualifier, and sent the home fans at the Jalan Besar Stadium into delirium, despite the fact that the Lions eventually lost 2–1.

For all his goalscoring exploits including top scorer at the 2001 SEA Games, Indra has yet to impose himself on the Tiger Cup after forgettable campaigns in 2000 and 2002.

While playing for the Singapore national football team against Malaysia in May 2006, Sahdan suffered a knee injuries which sidelined him for the rest of the year. His comeback came in the King's Cup in December 2006 in Thailand when he put on commendable performances.

With national team captain, Aide Iskandar dropped from the national side for the friendly against UAE, Sahdan took over the armband and led the side to a credible 1–1 draw. Sahdan is also vice captain for his club, Home United.

On 9 November 2007, just hours before the kick off of the World Cup 2010 qualifiers against Tajikistan, then-captain of the national team, Aide Iskandar sensationally retired from international football, and handed down the skipper's armband to Sahdan.

Although he is on a scoring streak for his club in the S-League, Indra is on a goal-scoring drought in the international stage. Since the Last edition of the AFF ASEAN Football Championship in January 2007 till the 2008 AFF Suzuki Cup, Sahdan has only scored three goals against Indonesia, DPR Korea and Cambodia respectively.

Club

Sahdan made his debut for Sengkang Punggol in a 2–2 draw against Super Reds. He has now played 22 games for Sengkang Punggol and scored 11 goals. He got sent off for the first time in his career after he elbowed an Albirex Niigata player only 10 minutes into the game. That game was eventually won by Albirex Niigata 2–1.

Personal life

Sahdan married Bella Nora on 19 June 2010.

National team career statistics

Goals for Senior National Team

Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
March 31, 2004	Singapore, Singapore	Japan	1–2	Lost	2006 FIFA World Cup qualification
September 4, 2004	Singapore, Singapore	Indonesia	2–0	Won	Friendly
October 13, 2004	Singapore, Singapore	India	2–0	Won	2006 FIFA World Cup qualification
December 7, 2004	Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam	Vietnam	1–1	Draw	2004 Tiger Cup
December 13, 2004	Hanoi, Vietnam	Laos	6–2	Won	2004 Tiger Cup
December 13, 2004	Hanoi, Vietnam	Laos	6–2	Won	2004 Tiger Cup
January 16, 2005	Singapore, Singapore	Indonesia	2–1	Won	2004 Tiger Cup
January 26, 2006	Singapore, Singapore	Denmark	1–2	Lost	Friendly
February 3, 2006	Kuwait City, Kuwait	Kuwait	2–2	Draw	Friendly
January 7, 2007	Singapore, Singapore	Philippines	4–1	Won	Friendly
January 7, 2007	Singapore, Singapore	Philippines	4–1	Won	Friendly
January 17, 2007	Singapore, Singapore	Indonesia	2–2	Draw	2007 ASEAN Football Championship
June 24, 2007	Singapore, Singapore	North Korea	2–1	Won	Friendly
December 5, 2008	Jakarta, Indonesia	Cambodia	5–0	Won	2008 AFF Suzuki Cup