The friendship between China and Singapore reached a new height on the night of June 11, 2024, when Singaporean goalkeeper Hassan Sunny saved the last must-goal of the Thai team.
In the World Cup qualifying match between Thailand and Singapore, Sonny struggled to withstand 11 shots from the Thai team, indirectly sending the Chinese team, whose life was hanging by a thread, to advance to the top 18 of the Asian preliminaries.
Sonny became an overnight sensation in China. Chinese netizens affectionately call him "the 12th man of the national football team" and "dedicated his life to the national football team."
The nasi lemak stall he opened in Singapore quickly became a popular check-in spot for Chinese people. Some netizens who were unable to attend the event in person used the QR code of the stall that leaked online to transfer money to "Cloud Eats" and left a message, "Long live the friendship between China and New Zealand, my benefactor's shop must be delicious."
In Singapore, the last one to be as popular as this A sports star, he is also the swimmer Schooling who won Singapore's first and only Olympic gold medal.
Sonny, who is 40 years old this year, has never experienced this magical moment in his more than 20 years of football career: he just performed his duty as a goalkeeper, but he was "canonized" by Chinese netizens overnight .
"The sky-shattering wealth" hits the "God of Ha"
Sonny didn't really believe in the fact that he "became a god" at first.
"Before coming to China, my friend told me that I was very popular in China, but I didn't completely believe what he said." The shy and honest-looking Singaporean goalkeeper said bluntly in an interview with the media.
Just five days after Sonny became famous, he landed in China to participate in the activities of the Singapore listed company CapitaLand Group in Shanghai.
The moment he walked out of the airport, Sonny knew that what his friend said was true.
A large number of Chinese fans flocked to him to sign autographs and take photos, so that more than a dozen security guards had to circle him hand in hand to ensure that the rest of the trip went smoothly.
Sonny, surrounded by a group of burly men, always kept a shy smile, looking left and right. The Singapore goalkeeper, who has played countless games, has never been so nervous.
"He is handsome and very friendly." Min Xian, who went to Raffles City in Shanghai to see Sonny, told Southern Weekend, "He kept waving to us in the elevator until the elevator closed."
"Sunny Fans Group" "There are many real fans here. But more of them are Internet revelers like Min Xian.
Min Xian is a blogger on a short video platform, with more than 50,000 fans before. He followed Sonny throughout his three-day trip to Shanghai. The highest number of views on his video exceeded 300,000, and the highest number of likes reached more than 2,000.
"My previous video likes were basically in double digits. In the past three days, Sonny has helped me gain nearly 10,000 followers." Min Xian admitted that the purpose of chasing Sonny was to gain followers.
Among these revelers, there are various Internet celebrities who want to gain traffic, as well as ordinary netizens who follow the trend and join in the fun. The former bets on the KPI of his own background, while the latter wants a sense of presence in the circle of friends. They jointly launched the "Sonny God-making Movement" and each got what they needed in this movement.
Regarding this sudden "wealth and wealth", Sonny, who is at the core of the movement, is obviously ignorant and passive.
His family was very confused and even a little shocked. Sonny's daughters asked their father, "Why can I see your face everywhere?"
But the Chinese people who responded quickly were not ignorant and watched Sonny become a new star. Traffic Code, on June 14, Justin Sun, a post-90s “coin master” who is well versed in the rules of the Internet, officially announced that Sonny will officially serve as the official spokesperson for his cryptocurrency.
takes advantage of the popularity to quickly start a business harvest. Because no one can know where the traffic will go in the next second.
traffic selected him
Among Singaporean players, Sonny is undoubtedly outstanding.
But if we zoom in to the Singapore national team, the situation becomes a bit embarrassing.
Singapore ranks only 159th in FIFA's latest world rankings. What is this concept? The winning national football team ranks 88th.
In another World Cup qualifying match 3 months ago, when Singapore tied with the Chinese team 2:2, the captain of the national football team Zhang Linpeng said that he would retire to "apologise" because "even Singapore can't beat it. It's simply It’s a shame.”
If Sonny, who has played in the Singapore League for a long time, is placed among the world-class goalkeepers, he may just be a little transparent.
but the traffic picked him. As long as he is selected by the traffic, no matter how transparent he was before, he will become famous instantly. Whether he is willing or not, he will take over this wave of "sudden wealth."
Sonny is like this, Tang Shui Grandpa, Goose Leg Aunt, and Hand Chong Old Lady are all like this.
In the traffic storm, everyone's fate is different.
Wuhan’s Tang Shui Grandpa gave cyberbullies an outlet to vent their anger, and the “ice cream assassins” took the opportunity to take back their reasons for selling goods at high prices.
A hand-brewed old lady in Nanjing saved Nestlé Instant, which was outclassed by freshly ground coffee, and netizens who queued up to drink a 10-yuan cup of instant coffee reaped the pleasure of collective participation.
Auntie Goose Legs in Beijing has satisfied the desire of netizens to visit top universities, and top students have experienced another wave of academic admiration.
Traffic creators, after making a lot of money, immediately move to the next traffic pool to party.
Grandpa Tang Shui, Granny Shou Chong, and Aunt Goose Legs, who were at the center of the storm, either instantly cooled down and returned to their original lives, or collapsed because they could not handle the sudden wealth.
Wang Shengming, who is familiar with Sonny’s team, told Southern Weekend that he hopes that Sonny can use this wave of traffic to get more endorsements in China. “The salary of Singaporean football players is basically SGD 5,000-8,000. In Singapore, they are just ordinary football players. Even if there are a few who earn more than 10,000 yuan, their income is not high compared with football players in other countries."
Wang Shengming said frankly that Singapore is very small, and the domestic football league cannot sell many tickets, and there are no major sponsorships. business. Compared with Chinese players, even taking into account the exchange rate advantage, they earn much less, "otherwise Sonny wouldn't sell nasi lemak."
Wang Shengming revealed that in Singapore, most of the people who play football are Malays. And Sonny is also of Malay descent.
Although the Singaporean goalkeeper has not fully adapted to the sudden fame, he has begun to learn the etiquette of doing as the Romans do. During his just-concluded trip to China, Sonny stated in front of the Chinese media that "his great-grandfather was of Chinese descent."
“This plot is a bit crazy”
On June 19, Sonny’s nasi lemak stall reopened the day after he returned to China, and the stall had returned to its former peace. Those who went to visit found that there were only two or three tables of diners visiting that morning, which was completely different from the previous scene of packed seats.
Sonny’s wife also restored the ingredients prepared that day to their original portions. She apologized for the inconvenience caused to nearby residents.
In just one week, the people who checked in have receded like the tide. Perhaps, they are waiting or on their way to the next traffic carnival.
Lin Lefen, who has lived in Singapore for more than 50 years, is surprised by the enthusiasm of Chinese people to pursue Sonny, and she is particularly surprised that the way the Chinese express their love is "QR code transfer", "This plot is a bit crazy. " Lin Lefen said.
She didn't understand that in China, this kind of situation is already common, such as giving rewards to your favorite anchors. Another example is after Xtep donated money, its live broadcast room was maxed out, etc.
Under Sonny's video, a message like this received high praise: "Sometimes I really don't understand what people are thinking in their heads."
(Min Xian, Wang Shengming, and Lin Lefen are pseudonyms in the article)
Southern Weekend Special Writer Manuscript by Renjie
Editor-in-chief Yao Yijiang
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