A virus scuppered this Singaporean’s trial with EPL side Everton. This is how he moved on

SINGAPORE: Long before the Great Disruption known as the COVID-19 pandemic upended lives and messed up even the best-laid plans, Mohamed Nabeel Mohamed Yusoff knew how it felt to have a deadly virus throw a dream into disarray.

At age 17, he flew to England to chase the opportunity of a lifetime.

He had earned a two-week all-expenses-paid trial with Everton Football Club after impressing at a football camp in Singapore that had youth academy coaches from three English Premier League (EPL) clubs in attendance.

But after he arrived at the club in late April 2003, Nabeel learnt that he would not be able to train and play in front of Everton’s coaching staff owing to fears over the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).

He could not even stay at the youth academy’s hostel and was put up at the home of Ted Sutton, Everton’s then head of Football in the Community. Sutton was the one who had picked him up from Manchester Airport and driven him to Liverpool.

“There is a level of hysteria in the UK surrounding the mystery virus, and this peaked during the time of your visit,” Sutton wrote in a letter dated April 28, 2003, to Nabeel and his family.

Nabeel was “like a tourist” instead: He could only go on a stadium tour, watch an Everton match and visit other facilities.

Sutton arranged for him to train with third-tier club Tranmere Rovers, but that also proved to be short-lived. Concerns over SARS caught up, and the club halted his training sessions with other players.

With his options exhausted, Nabeel joined his family on holiday in the United Kingdom and returned on May 9, 2003.

Nearly 20 years to the day since SARS forced his return, CNA Insider caught up with him to find out