Rio Ferdinand and Sergio Aguero in Singapore
Rio Ferdinand and Sergio Aguero are in Singapore, for the SG Game On Ultimate Selfie Challenge, organised by SingTel and Samsung Mobile. To find out how SG Game On went, read on.
It was just after 9am today at the Chevron House in Raffles Place. Football fans and the media were slowly building up in the foyer. Pretty soon, the whole place was quite packed.
Everyone was waiting eagerly with bated breath. Two top English Premier League football stars, Rio Ferdinand and Sergio Aguero, were in town.
They were here to take part in the SG Game On Ultimate Selfie Challenge – organized by SingTel and Samsung Mobile.
Some lucky fans got autographs and photos with their idols
Just over half an hour later, cameras flashed and the crowd jostled for position. Ferdinand, a defender, who will be ending his 12-year stay at Manchester United, and Aguero, a Manchester City striker, had arrived. Everyone was inching forward to try and get a good glimpse of the football stars.
Today, some lucky fans managed to get both an autograph and a photo with their footballing idols.
Lucky Manchester City fan Jacob Cermak (in blue jersey) poses with his signed ball and family.
One of the fortunate ones had been Manchester City and Aguero fan, Nelson Zheng. Said the 26-year-old self-employed engineer, “Aguero is my hero and my favourite footballer.
“So obviously I am here to get as close to him as possible. And I’m really lucky because I got a both a signature and a photo – so it is more than what I had actually asked for,” added Nelson.
The Selfie Challenges
Throughout the whole morning, the two players were ushered from one location to another, taking part in four different challenges.
They tried their hands at speaking Singlish, did Tai Chi, ate local hawker favourites and showcased their fancy football skills.
And fans definitely enjoyed watching their favourite idols in action at these challenges.
Said die-hard Manchester City and Aguero fan, 17-year-old Australian International School student Jacob Cermak, “Aguero performing those activities was breath-taking. It was hard to see, but from what we could witness, it was just really amazing.”
The footballers learning Singlish. (Credits: SG Game On)
The icing on the cake for a very thrilled and overjoyed Jacob – who calls himself Aguero’s Number One fan – was that he even managed to get Aguero to sign his sky-blue Manchester City ball. And his sheer pleasure was clearly written all over his face.
Enriching Singlish Lessons
The footballers were given a multiple-choice quiz comprising of three questions and they had to insert the correct Singlish terms into a sentence. These were chope, walau and referee kelong.
Ferdinand was slightly better at this challenge, winning by two to one. Aguero had missed out on the win, because he did not realise that Singaporeans chope tables at local food centres. Both stars seemed to have enjoyed this challenge.
A Tough Tai Chi Session
For both players, the Tai Chi challenge was probably the most difficult one. As it was late morning by the time this outdoor challenge took place, the English footballers had to grapple with the sweltering Singapore heat.
Ferdinand and Aguero doing Tai Chi.
At the same time, confusion was clearly written all over their faces, as they looked at each other and tried their hardest to make sense of what the Tai Chi master was trying to teach them. Both seemed to be totally lost and didn’t have much of a clue at what they were supposed to be doing! For both players, it was definitely a far cry from kicking a football!
Enjoyed the Makan Session
But the stars definitely enjoyed the subsequent makan session and clearly had a whale of a time, trying out some of our most famous local delights. This was their reward after the tough Tai Chi workout.
The dishes that they were given included chicken rice, beef noodles, fried carrot cake, oyster omelette and not forgetting durians – the King of Fruits.
Ferdinand and Aguero enjoying Singaporean delights.
It was quite comical to see both players sniffing the durian pieces before popping it into their mouths, as though they weren’t quite sure whether they should eat it or not!
So it definitely came as a surprise, when Aguero subsequently admitted that he particularly enjoyed eating the durians.
But Ferdinand preferred the carrot cake. He said, “The carrot cake was very nice, that was my favourite. To taste the food was my favourite part of the challenge.”
performing delightful tricks with the football
To showcase their football skills, both players performed some simple ball tricks. The aim was simple – not to let the ball touch the ground.
The footballers posing with the ball after the football challenge. (Credit: SG Game On).
Their full concentration was written clearly on the faces of both players. After all, this is their bread and butter and so they had wanted to do well.
Ferdinand won this challenge as Aguero had inadvertently let the ball slip from his grasp after just over a minute.
Ferdinand Wins the Selfie Challenge
After taking selfies at every stop and performing the required challenges, the eventual winner of the SG Game On Ultimate Selfie Challenge was Ferdinand. Both had to post selfies of their experiences on Twitter with fans being encouraged to retweet them. Ferdinand garnered the most number of retweets.
After he had been told that he’d won, Ferdinand quipped, “at least I won something this year!” Well, at least for him, that somewhat makes up a little, for the pain of losing the title to Manchester City!
With Sergio Aguero.
Aguero was quite okay about losing the challenge, though. In fact, he had such a good time today that he even hopes to return to Singapore again, to learn more about our local culture.
Fans were delighted to have seen their idols
Football fans were delighted to see their idols in the flesh. Said 45-year-old housewife Kylie Brooks said, “We chased Aguero everywhere! We have come from the tai chi event to the Singapore Flyer and we plan to keep going until tomorrow at Chevron House! It was such a buzz to have this experience. It was amazing!”
And for some Manchester United fans too, seeing one of their favourite players also made up for the heartache of their club’s disastrous season.
With Rio Ferdinand.
Said 26-year-old jobseeker Ong Hong Jie, “Watching Ferdinand in the flesh was an unexpected sight and a dream come true, as a Man United fan.” Even though he didn’t manage to get any photos, Hong Jie is overjoyed with his Ferdinand autograph – and went home happy.
If you didn’t manage to catch Ferdinand and Aguero in action today, they will be at Chevron House tomorrow from 12pm to 2pm at a public event to showcase their footballing skills.
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