Quah Kim Song & Jacintha Stephens
Singapore: Straits Times Press, 2014
ISBN: 9789814342810
The Quah Kim Song Story is about football in Singapore and the region, told in Kim Song's colourful football vernacular to Jacintha Stephens. This book, she says, "is of a special time and place in Singapore's social history. Of a moment in time when a young nation suddenly found a common goal and identity -- and roared their allegiance as their football team played their hearts out. This was the birth of the great Kallang Roar."
For almost three decades, there was a Quah in the national team. A legacy started by Quah Kim Beng in the late 1950s ended with Quah Kim Song in the early 1980s. In between there were Kim Swee, Kim Siak and Kim Lye, and three sisters, Theresa, Doreen and Rosa, who also donned national colours.
In his book, Kim Song delves deep into what the Quahs were all about. His anecdotes and experiences, particularly on the football pitch, added to his lively sketches of crucial games, teammates, coaches and competitors, make this a rich memoir of the Kallang Roar era.
Prof Tommy Koh, in his Foreword, writes that "When the Singapore national team was playing at its peak, the whole nation was proud of it and followed each match with bated breath. ...Every great team must have an inspiring striker. Quah Kim Song was our inspiring striker in the 1970s."
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