Written by: Khalis Rifhan

The name Hassan Sunny is not unfamiliar to local football aficionados as the Warriors Football Club goalkeeper has been a key member of the Singapore national football team in recent years.

His saves and presence between the sticks has been compared to former Lions’ custodians such as David Lee and Rezal Hassan, and more often than not the goalkeeper has come to Singapore’s rescues in international fixtures.

While Hassan’s career has been blighted with several injury scares, the 30-year-old custodian has plowed on despite those setbacks.

Hassan’s perseverance and commitment to the beautiful game will now see him preparing for one of the biggest match of his football career as he will be going up against the stars from Italian giants Juventus.

While it might be a pre-season exhibition match for the Italians, their previous two matches in Indonesia and Australia showed that they actually mean business and are not here to fool around.

With that in mind, Hassan remains focus as he looks set to square up against the likes of Fernando Llorente, Carlos Tevez, Claudio Marchisio and Paul Pogba.

“It is a big honour for us, especially for myself to play against World Cup stars.(Gianluigi) Buffon who I look up to and Tevez at the other side. It is a big match and I hope we can enjoy the match and learn as much as we can,” said Hassan at the pre-match press conference at the National Stadium, Sports Hub on Thursday.

“I will try my best to overcome that (facing Juventus’ firepower) and it is not easy to face against the best freekick takers in the world. I hope when the situation come I can manage it well.”

Hassan and the Singapore Selection side also had their first feel of the new ground at the billion dollar state-of-the-art National Stadium.

“We had our first session and it was our first time stepping on the ground. We were told that the pitch will take a while to settle down so we have to adapt to it,” Hassan commented.

“So far, this is the best we have at the moment and we are excited to take on Juventus.”