Woodlands Wellington snaps up Lewis.
By: Inshan Mohammed.
Former Naparima College and Trinidad and Tobago national U-20 defender Fabien Lewis has joined Singapore's professional football league club Woodlands Wellington FC of the S League.
The team's home ground is the Woodlands Stadium, which is at the northern part of Singapore and they are nicknamed the “Rams".
Woodlands Wellington won the inaugural Singapore League Cup in 2007. They finished runners-up in the Singapore FA Cup in 1997, and also in the Singapore Cup in 2005 and 2008.
In speaking with Soca Warriors Online (SWO) Fabien said, "The agent brought me here and told me that the team is currently looking for a center back. When I reached however, the Club said that they had already signed a center back and I was too late. Now bear in mind that I spent $2,300 USD on a ticket to come here on trial. I did not even know what to tell the agent, I got so mad."
"They were interested in a striker. The striker was from Australia and almost certain to sign. I started looking at the trip as a vacation, but when I stepped on the field the 1st day I had a real good session and made an impression on the coach."
"The coach said he was interested and extended my trial for an extra week. Then suddenly, the club brought in another center back from Japan’s J2 League, a Korean center back from the K1, an Australian center back, an Ecuadorian striker and a midfielder from the Korean K2. So I thought to myself that my back was against the wall now and got worried."
"He kept all of us for a weeklong trial and everything was very competitive, even the warm ups and players wanted to lead for everything."
"I had a really good week of training and also showed him (the coach) what I could do on the ball in the attack. Then the Friday after practice he called me first and told me that he wanted me to stay."
"But then I saw he called every other trialist too, so I was thinking maybe he told them the same thing? After he spoke to all the players, I asked my agent what he told the rest of players.”
My agent just shook his head, laughing at me and said they were all cut and the coach wanted to sign me. I could not express the joy I felt."
"I think it was a good thing when I found out they already had a center back, because when I stepped on the field I was always felt non-pressured and just did my thing."
"It was a great experience in Singapore, they have one of the top leagues in South East Asia as you may or may not know. It is very competitive here as each team is only allowed 4 foreign players and they adopt a 3+1 model (i.e. 3 non-Asian and 1 Asian) so basically there was only 1 spot left when I came over here, so it’s really hard to get in. Even the agents tell their players to team up on other players to kick them out."
“I left Trinidad to come and try out for a team here and when I got here they basically said they did not need me, but in the end I made them change their minds. Things are very dynamic over here, Jan Steadman who was my coach in Trinidad use to always tell us, first impressions always last."
With regards to traveling his new team Fabien stated, "The team leaves for Thailand next week for pre-season... I will also get the opportunity to go to Brunei and Malaysia later on in the year for games as there are two teams from those countries playing in the League."
“Woodlands Wellington did not do too well last season and has big ambitions for this season, hence the reason they are trying to sign more players."
" Singapore as a county is really nice, it’s very clean, there are a lot of rules and they are a rich country. I have a nice apartment here which I share with 2 other players, "
"I will be here for a year and God willing there will be no injuries. My first game is on February 9th and all games will be televised....I'm so excited,” ended Lewis.
Fabien, who was born in Fyzabad, played for Real Maryland Monarchs in the USL Second Division, Michigan Bucks and Western Mass Pioneers.
Lewis made appearances for Trinidad and Tobago’s U-17 and U-23 sides, was named to the national All-Star Team in 2000 and 2001, and was called to the senior team training camp by former T&T coach Hannibal Najar in December 2002. He has never played for the senior team.
Lewis was also closely watched by Rene Simoes while he still the coach of Trinidad and Tobago and was also invited to take part in training sessions with the senior team at that time.
He attended Naparima College, and came to the United States to play college soccer at Canisius College in 2003.
At Canisius Lewis Fabien was honored with the MAAC All Rookie, All Conference, All Region Team nominations, and was the Conference Defensive Player of the Year in 2003, prior to transferring to George Mason University as a junior in 2006.
At George Mason he was named to the NSCAA All-South Atlantic Region Third Team, the CAA All-Conference Second team and CAA All-Tournament Team.
