He hasn't broken any records like what Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have been doing for fun, and he was virtually unknown until last November during the South East Asian Games in Indonesia. The name of Nazmi Faiz Mansor now, is already a common name among football fans in Malaysia, as well as some countries in this region.
Standing at 1.67meters tall, the quick thinking Nazmi operates as an attacking midfielder, with the ability to spray defence splitting passes. Despite the small frame, Nazmi never backs off from a 50-50 challenge. At the age of just only 17, turning 18 in August 2012, Nazmi is already an integral part of the Harimau Muda's set up, under the leadership of Ong Kim Swee here in the Singapore League (S-League).
Nazmi, whose first brush with a football was under the guidance of his father Mr Mansor at seven years of age and he tributes his success in football to Aminuddin Hussin, a football coach from the Bukit Jalil Sports School (SSBJ). Aminuddin spotted Nazmi at the age of 13 when he was playing for Kebangsaan Taman Melawati, his school in Kuala Lumpur, when he was in Form One. After some persuasion, Nazmi joined Aminuddin at the SSBJ the following year. Nazmi has been there since then.
The soft spoken boy, who tries his best to smile when he comes into contact with strangers, hasn't looked back since the day he joined SSBJ. However, he shares that luck has played a huge part in his football career.
"It was by pure luck that I got called up to the SEA Games squad. I remember I was in Vietnam for the AFC U19 tournament. Coach Ismail Ibrahim told me that I needed to report back to Malaysia as I will be involved in the SEA Games. I had to go back and thus I went back. At KLIA, I saw the whole team waiting for me, and I went to Indonesia straight from transit."
He is definitely not getting carried away with the amount of attention that he is getting at the moment.
"Spotlight is something I am not bothered about. All I want to do is to focus on my game. Every time I step on to the pitch, I just want to give my best" Said the fourth child of the five children Mansor family.
On plying his trade in the S-League, Nazmi feels that it is a step forward in his development as a footballer. Playing against bigger opponents will help improve his game. In the Singapore League, teams are entitled to fielding up to four import players and Nazmi feels that this aspect can improve his physical side of the game.
Nazmi is also determined in helping Harimau Muda to the top of the S-League table as he feels obligated to do so.
"If you look at Singapore's representative in the Malaysia Super League, they are currently occupy the top position. My aim will be to help Harimau Muda achieve that as well"
The big fan of his team mate Irfan Fazail as well as Barcelona's Xavi Hernandez told aXrosstheline.com that his dream is to play outside Malaysia one day and has set sights on the Japanese Football Leagues for a start.
"It has always been a dream to play outside Malaysia and Japan seemed like a possible destination. I am not belittling the other leagues in the world, please don't get me wrong. The (football) level in Japan these days is quite high and it is comparable to the leagues in Europe"
It seemed a little weird that Nazmi would idolize someone who is so close to him now, but he shared his little secret.
"When Irfan was a senior in sports school, I look up to him a lot because of the way he plays. Something which a lot of people don't know. I watch a lot of Irfan's games. To be playing side by side with him now, it is a really nice feeling which I don't know how to describe."
"In the International scene, I enjoy watching Xavi Hernandez because of the way he plays. He always make things look so simple" said Nazmi, who hopes to play like Xavi Hernandez one day.
Nazmi remembers fondly of the wonder goal that he scored during the Pre-Olympic qualifiers against Bahrain and shared that it was the best goal that he had scored since he started playing football.
"I really gave my best during that game. I was absolutely delighted when the ball hit the net. Unfortunately, we lost the game in the end. I know that goal brought a lot of attention to me but I am not going to be carried away by that. I would love to work even harder, and get a couple more like this" said the scorer of a 40 yard scorcher at Bukit Jalil National Stadium in front of more than 35,000 spectators.
Nazmi, who has yet to complete his SPM examinations (equivalent to the GCE 'O' levels), is currently taking additional lessons thanks to some special arrangements from the SSBJ. Nazmi will be taking the examinations this year, after postponing it due to the SEA Games last year.
"I am very fortunate that the school has kindly allowed me to take my SPM examinations with special permissions with the arrangement whereby I can take extra lessons with the teachers in school. It doesn't matter which day I do it, but so long as I find time during my free time to visit the teachers, they will provide me with the assistance that I need" Nazmi said.
Every team will definitely need a joker to liven up the squad during their travels and that goes the same for Harimau Muda. Nazmi shared how he got pranked by the biggest joker in the Harimau Muda team, Fadhli Shas.
"The joker of the team has definitely got to be Fadhli Shas. He never fails to cheer everyone up. I remembered that when we were doing our recovery in the swimming pool after a game one day, the boy went underwater, stripped me naked and threw my shorts out of the pool. I had to retrieve my shorts with nothing on! It was so embarrassed and thank god it was late at night, so no one else was around other than the team. We had a good laugh after that"
Despite being away from home most of the time, Nazmi is relishing the challenge and believes that his team will come out tops in the S-League come end of the season.
"We have a very united squad. And we have a great coach in coach Ong (Kim Swee) who is a great tactician and motivator."
"Everyone in the team looks forward to coming to Singapore. We all switch to one frequency and that is we want three points for every game."
"We want to do our best in every game so that we can be up there at the end of the season."
He had attracted the attention of many, but we had a hard time trying to dig out information of his sweetheart. When asked if he had a girlfriend, Nazmi smiled wryly and look straight into the eye of the reporter without answering.
Full Name: Muhamad Nazmi Faiz Bin Mansor
Birthday: 16 August 1994
Place of Birth: Lembah Keramat Kuala Lumpur
Nationality: Malaysia
Height: 167 cm. (5 ft 5 1⁄2 in)
Playing Position: Midfielder
School: Sports School Bukit Jalil, (2008-current)
Current team: Harimau Muda A (S-League)
Squad number: 5
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