Cardiff City footballer Perry Ng applying for Singapore citizenship via Foreign Sports Talent Scheme

SINGAPORE: Cardiff City footballer Perry Ng is in the process of applying for Singapore citizenship via the Foreign Sports Talent Scheme (FST), Football Association of Singapore (FAS) general secretary Chew Chun-Liang said on Thursday (Feb 6). 

Speaking to reporters during a briefing at Jalan Besar Stadium, Mr Chew said that the FAS is supporting Ng’s application and will wait for the authorities' decision.

“The first step is to make sure that he gets his PR (permanent residency) first before he gets his citizenship and can represent Singapore,” added Mr Chew, who was appointed FAS general secretary in November last year.

“FAS is exploring the opportunity, to consider Perry Ng under the Foreign Sports Talent Scheme, with the relevant agencies," FAS said in a subsequent statement. 

Under the scheme, Singapore has naturalised athletes who were not born here or have ancestral links to the country.

If successful, Ng will become the first footballer to attain Singapore citizenship under the FST since China-born Qiu Li in 2010.

Before Qiu, other footballers who took up citizenship via the FST included Agu Casmir, Mustafic Fahrudin and Shi Jiayi.

In more recent times, Lion City Sailors’ Song Ui-young and BG Tampines Rovers’ Kyoga Nakamura were naturalised after meeting FIFA’s five-year residency requirement.

Under FIFA rules, 28-year-old Ng is eligible to play for Singapore via his late paternal grandfather James, who was born here, but later moved to Liverpool.

However, under Singapore citizenship rules, he can only qualify for a passport by descent if at least one parent was born in the country or is a citizen by registration.

The defender penned a deal last year that will keep him at Cardiff City until 2026. He has been Cardiff City’s