A cutaway of Singaporean goalkeeper Hassan Sunny in front of his food stall.
Chinese football fans took to social media to express their sincere gratitude to Singapore and its goalkeeper for their efforts to prevent Thailand’s crushing victory and for keeping China’s World Cup hopes alive by a very narrow margin on Tuesday.
China managed to advance to the third round of Asian qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup despite losing 1-0 to group winners South Korea in Seoul.
Thailand, who finished the group with the same number of points and goal difference as China, missed out on the next stage with an inferior head-to-head record.
Having had to beat Singapore by three goals to leapfrog China into second place in Group C, Thailand could only win 3-1 at home as Singapore goalkeeper Hassan Sunny’s heroic performances helped China qualify for the third qualifying round.
Singapore striker Ikhsan Fandi’s second-half equalizer put the Thais on the brink and Sunny, 40, made 11 saves in the match, preventing a frenzied Thailand from scoring more goals. During stoppage time, he even received a yellow card in the 95th minute for wasting time.
After the match, Sunny’s personal social media account was flooded with thank you messages from Chinese fans. The goalkeeper runs a stall selling Malaysian rice with coconut milk in Singapore. Some Chinese fans posted Sunny’s photos and booth address, calling on Chinese tourists to visit the booth and give it a “five-star review.” His stand was flooded with visitors on Wednesday.
Some netizens reportedly posted Sunny’s booth payment QR code online and made payments to show their support and gratitude.
In response to Chinese fans’ sincere gratitude, Sunny said “Thank you, China” in a short video filmed by his teammates after the match. One of his teammates said in the footage that “he saved China.”
The social media accounts of the Singapore Embassy in China and the Singapore Tourism Board on China’s X-shaped Weibo site also received many thank-you messages from fans.
“Thank you Singapore for your fair play. I would love to travel to Singapore,” wrote one Weibo user.
Eighteen teams will be divided into three groups for the third qualifying round in Asia, where the top two teams in each group will earn an automatic berth to the 2026 World Cup. Two other teams will gain direct entry into the World Cup at starting from a fourth qualifying stage and another will participate in the intercontinental qualifiers for a place in the world football competition.
