By Ernest Luis
Hands-off approach'Their mother Wendy (Jacobs) initially wanted to travel with us for every overseas trip.
'But I advised Fandi and Wendy not to spoil the children. They both agreed to have a hands-off approach.'
Fandi himself had a stint in Holland with Groningen from 1983-1984.
But as he famously told The New Paper in 1997 during the South-east Asia Games - when he retired from international football - his biggest regret was turning down an offer from Dutch giants Ajax Amsterdam in 1982, to sign for Indonesian club Niac Mitra instead.
His sons may well live their father's dreams in the near future.
Both Irfan and Ikhsan are strikers, for now. In October, Ikhsan starred in an Under-10 tournament for the junior academies of Italian giants AC Milan, scoring eight goals in seven matches for his team. He finished as the competition's second-top scorer.
In July, both boys impressed officials from Spanish Primera Liga side Valencia during the club's junior trials in Alicante.
Now, there's interest from Italy's Serie A side Palermo as well as Portuguese first division giants Sporting Lisbon.
Their next target: Head to Europe again during their three-month long school holidays starting in June, at the invitation of these two clubs.
They have to learn to live without all the comforts of their five-bedroom, two-storey home in south Jakarta, each time they go to Europe.
Uefa's (Europe's ruling football body) rules state they cannot be signed by European clubs until they are at least 18. But at 14, they can go to a club's boarding school where they study and play.
And then, there's the most difficult hurdle of trying to prove they are better than that homegrown local boy, or the other hundreds of promising boys from all over who compete for the rare few places.
If they adapt or somehow make it, they will also pave the way for their younger brothers Ilhan, six, and little Iryan, two.
Not only that, they may also pave the way for other like-minded Singaporean parents and children to follow.
Because if Singaporeans can leave the comforts of home to study and work overseas and make a mark, why not in sports?
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