Footballer Nur Ain Salleh, 14, aims to make family proud

Lion City Sailors sensation Nur Ain Salleh, 14, has her sister to thank for giving her a start in football. Aged just five, Ain would accompany Nur Atikah Ardini to Serangoon Stadium for the latter’s national youth team training sessions.

While waiting, she would juggle the ball and play on her own, catching the eye of the national age-group coaches Yeong Sheau Shyan and Angeline Chua, who encouraged her to join the Football Association of Singapore’s girls programme.

Atikah, 21, has since quit the sport to focus on work. But she continues to inspire and motivate her younger sibling.

Ain told The Sunday Times in an interview at the Sailors’ Training Centre at Mattar Road: “Ever since my sister stopped playing football about two years ago, I just wanted to prove that I am better than her.

“I want to show her that I can do better than her and also succeed in my football journey.”

Unlike most of her peers, who find their feet training with girls their age, Ain’s exceptional talent saw her training with and playing against boys since she was six. Lioness Danelle Tan, who is flying the flag with her exploits at German side Borussia Dortmund, followed the same path as a young player.

While the teenager is soft spoken and shy off the pitch, she is anything but meek on the ball.

Clips of Ain – the first female scholar of the Sailors Football Academy – holding her own against boys, both locally and overseas, have been widely shared on the academy’s Instagram page. As a result, many in the local fraternity have tipped her to be a key figure in local women’s football in the future.

Noting that boys often underestimate her abilities, Ain, who studies at Swiss Cottage Secondary School, said: “When I win Man of the Match awards sometimes, I can hear the frustration of opponents. But I enjoy this and I knew from the start that if I play with the boys, I would just get better.”

Sailors Academy coordinator Ashraf Ariffin, who coached Ain when she was with the Under-13 boys’ team said: “From a young age, we could already see her potential and how special she is and how much ahead of the other girls she is. Having her in the boys’ programme has benefited her development.

“What sets her apart is her technical ability on the ball, her speed and acceleration...

“Her aggressive nature with the ball and without it especially in pressing and in transition.

“Her development pathway for her at the LCS Academy is for her to remain in the boys’ programme for as long as she remains competitive.

“We are also exposing her yearly to an individual training stint at Atletico Madrid, and also looking for a suitable programme that would benefit her progress overseas.”

Ain was recently promoted to the Sailors’ senior side who compete in the Deloitte Women’s Premier League (WPL), after impressive displays for their Under-13 Elite Boys’ team.

The right winger made an instant impact, scoring once and providing an assist in their 13-0 win over Tiong Bahru FC at Choa Chu Kang Stadium on June 30. According to FAS records since 2018, she is not the youngest WPL player – that honour belongs to Siti Quraisyah, who debuted for Tanjong Pagar this season as a 13-year-old.

In just her second game, Ain showed her big-match prowess by netting twice to help the Sailors win 3-1 against Albirex Niigata in a top-of-the-table clash on July 20 at Choa Chu Kang Stadium.

The victory saw the Sailors move three points clear at the top of the nine-team league with 27 points after 10 games.

Beyond trying to outdo her sister, one of Ain’s biggest motivations is wanting to make her late father proud.

Growing up, one of her favourite activities was to stay up late with her dad, a Manchester United fan, to catch their matches.

During a family holiday in Indonesia in October 2022 – which she missed as she had a competition in Singapore – Ain’s father died of a heart attack.

She said: “I always want to do him proud and I hope he is watching on and is happy with my progress. Just a day before he passed away, he sent me off to a competition.

“He hugged me and promised to watch my matches via a livestream. My mother told me later on that he passed on while watching my game. That upsets me a lot.”

A playing stint in Europe is top of her wish list, after getting a taste of the “super fast and technical” environment in Spain during a training camp in Atletico.

But no matter where her football takes her, family will still mean everything to the teenager.

Breaking into a smile, Nur Ain muttered when asked what the sport meant to her: “Everything. I just want to make my family proud.”