S’porean Takes Tottenham Long-Time Fan Dad To His First Premier League Match As Retirement Gift

For most football fans, attending a Premier League match is a dream come true.

For 24-year-old Singapore TikToker Aly (@pookeymice), it was the perfect retirement gift for her father, a Tottenham Hotspur fan of 50 years who had never watched his beloved club play live.

When Aly found out her family would be travelling to London in May, she decided it was finally time to make that dream a reality.

In a TikTok that has since warmed hearts online, Aly documented the moment she brought her father to his first-ever Premier League game at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

"Won in life as I got to bring my dad for his first Premier League game as his retirement gift," read the text overlay.

The pair attended Tottenham's Premier League clash against Leeds United on May 11, which ended in a 1-1 draw.

Aly’s dad, 57, had just retired from the Singapore Police Force as an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) after 37 years of service.

The retirement gift was especially meaningful as Aly wanted to use her own money to thank her father for everything he had done for her growing up.

"He has always supported me financially — things like my driver's licence, my braces and my university fees," she told 8days.sg.

"So I wanted to give back to him."

The family had started planning their London holiday last October, and Aly made sure their travel dates coincided with Tottenham's match schedule.

Despite not being a football fan herself, Aly did extensive research on the ticket-buying process, membership requirements and seating options.

To secure tickets during the members' presale, she purchased Tottenham's One Hotspur+ membership for both herself and her father.

"It was not hard to get tickets per se, but they won't announce it. You have to do your own research to know what time it goes on sale," she said, adding that she had even "camped" online to secure the passes.

Though she encountered connection issues and was repeatedly kicked out of the online queue, she eventually managed to secure seats just 18 rows from the pitch near the goalpost.

“We could see everything,” she said.

But the match itself was only part of the experience.

Aly had also booked a stadium tour that gave her dad access to areas usually off-limits to fans, including the dressing room and players' tunnel.

He even posed with Tottenham's Europa League trophy and sat in the manager's seat pretending to conduct a press conference.

For Aly, seeing her father let loose was one of the most memorable parts of the trip.

"As a policeman, all my 24 years of life, he has had that stern, strict demeanour that you would expect of a police officer," she shared.

"But that day at the stadium tour, I saw him completely out of his comfort zone. He was running around. When he sat in the manager's seat, he was acting like the manager. It was super funny… It felt like I was seeing his inner child,” she said, adding that she was glad she got to make him happy.

The entire experience cost Aly about S$465, including stadium tour tickets and match tickets for both of them.

"Even if it was S$500 per person, I would willingly pay because this is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to watch the game in London," she said.

The icing on the cake? A surprise appearance by her dad's favourite Spurs player from the 1970s.

"It was totally unplanned and coincidental," said Aly.

When the family returned to Singapore, they even rewatched the televised match to see if they could spot themselves in the crowd.

They did.

"It was blurry, but we found ourselves," she said.