Ahmad Latiff Khamaruddin
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Ahmad Latiff Khamaruddin (born 29 May 1979) is a Singaporean footballer who currently plays for PDRM FA in the Malaysian Super League.
[edit] Career
Once touted as a successor to golden boy Fandi Ahmad, he can play as an attacking midfielder or striker with talented playmaking skills. However, due to his consistent bad disciplinary track record for the national team and the club sides, he is deemed as 'bad boy' for Singapore football.
He started his career at Police FC (now Home United) in 1996, before moving to Geylang United the following year. In 1998, his sparkling performances led Singapore to win the Tiger Cup, the nation's first international trophy, despite getting sent off in the final win against Vietnam. His flamboyant performances caught the eyes of many top football coaches in Asia, who were confident that he would be the next big thing in Asian football. However, his disciplinary problems had got the better of him and he has failed to live up to the high expectations set for him.
In 1999, he moved to SAFFC where he helped the club win the S-League title in the following season. In 2001, he made his first career move abroad to Indonesia before coming back to SAFFC in 2002, where he played as a playmaker instead of being a striker in which he led the team to a runaway S-League title win.
In 2004, he once again moved to Woodlands Wellington but did not really played like what he did during his days at SAFFC. Eventually in 2006, he made his move abroad once again to Johor FA, the Malaysian state playing in the Malaysian Premier League, where he played well for the side alongside with fellow national skipper Aide Iskandar. After the Malaysian football season ended, he made a loan move with Aide Iskandar to Tampines Rover for the rest of S-League season. Prior to the start of the 2007 S-League season, Latiff returned to his former club, Woodlands Wellington. He was appointed as club captain by manager Jorg Steinbrunner, and led Woodlands Wellington to their first piece of silverware in their history, which is the Singtel League Cup, a preseason tournament.
For his international career, he had been in the Singapore national football team inconsistently after the 1998 Tiger Cup win due to his poor disciplinary track record. He was recalled to the national team in 2006 after his good performances for Johor FA but he may face the axe once again after committing some disciplinary offences during the Singapore's away trip to United Arab Emirates for the Asian Cup qualifying match against Iraq. Latiff has been given nicknames such as "the bad boy of Singapore football," obviously for his disciplinary problems on and off the pitch, and also "the blond bombshell," in reference to his bleached blond hair.
