Ben Davis (footballer, born 2000)


Benjamin James Davis is a Thai professional footballer who plays for English club Fulham. He most recently represented Thailand at the U23 level.

Personal life

Davis was born in Phuket, Thailand, and migrated to Singapore at the age of five with his family. Davis studied at the Singapore Sports School from 2013 to 2015 before moving to London's Harrow High School in 2016. In 2017, he was awarded a two-year scholarship with Fulham's academy.
Davis is the second-youngest of four children. His mother, Sopee Davis, is Thai, while his father, Harvey Davis, is English.

Club career

Davis started his professional career training at JSSL Singapore, a youth soccer academy owned by his father based in Singapore that has partnerships with Fulham and Singapore Premier League side Tampines Rovers. He later joined the Football Association of Singapore's Junior Centre of Excellence, and went on to represent various national age group teams.
In 2017, Davis earned a two-year academy scholarship with Fulham after impressing in trials. He was the first ever Singaporean player to sign for a Premier League side.
In his first season, Davis made 10 appearances for the club's Under-18 South League team, scoring a header against West Ham's Under-18 side and recording a passing accuracy of 90 percent. In 2018, Fulham announced that Davis, alongside other academy players, were offered professional contracts, where they would now earn a weekly wage as well as continue to play for the club's Under-18 and Under-23 side. He signed his first professional Fulham contract in June 2017 and is listed on the club's website as an English national. On 13 October 2019, Davis confirmed that he had registered to play as a local player with the English Football Association.

International career

Davis currently holds passports from the United Kingdom, Thailand, and Singapore but represents Thailand internationally.
During his training stint with JSSL Singapore and FAS Junior Centre of Excellence, Davis represented Singapore in several 2016 AFC U-16 Championship qualifiers in 2015. In 2017, Davis earned a call-up to Singapore's U-19 side to play in several 2018 AFC Under-19 Championship qualifiers.
In 2018, Davis received a surprise call-up to the senior Singapore national team for a run of AFC Asian Cup qualifiers, but he did not play in any of the matches.
In September 2019, Davis was called up to the Thailand U23 national team for the SEA Games training camp.
In 2020, Davis represented Thailand at the 2020 AFC U-23 Championship, appearing in a 1–1 draw against Iraq in the group stage as well as a 1–0 loss to Saudi Arabia in the quarter final, cap-tying him to Thailand.

Controversies

National Service

As a Singaporean citizen, he would have been compulsorily enlisted into National service upon turning 18. His application to defer National Service to continue develop his professional career as a footballer was rejected as he "does not meet the criteria for long-term deferment from full-time NS". His father sought to draw parallels to the deferment given to Joseph Schooling, who used the opportunity to win Olympic medals and at other international swimming meets for Singapore. Mindef commented that Davis' contract with Fulham is no different from other pre-enlistees' personal pursuits. Despite being supported by the Football Association of Singapore, a further appeal was denied as well, on the consideration that through actions by him and his father, Davis wanted the deferment to fulfill his own professional career with no intention to serve National Service. Since 18 February 2019, Davis has been deemed as a National Service defaulter by MINDEF.
MINDEF reasoned that Davis did not meet the criteria for long-term deferment from full-time NS due to it being a personal interest pursuit to further advance his professional career, and that it was unfair to any other Singaporean pre-enlistees who put their personal pursuits on hold to serve NS dutifully. In a later statement, MINDEF added that the deferment rejection was also based on grounds that Davis' father "would not commit to a date" on when his son would return to Singapore to serve NS, coupled with subsequent remarks to the media that he would encourage his son to renounce his Singapore citizenship in order to pursue his career.
In response to MINDEF's statement, Davis' father claimed that the family were unable to commit to a date for Davis to enlist as there was a possibility that he could be offered a new two-year contract in 2019, loaned to, or sold to another club. Davis' father also highlighted that he agreed that his son should serve national service, but could not commit to a date as the family "would like to give him the best opportunity to play at the highest possible professional level in the United Kingdom and Europe". This was in contradiction to MINDEF's deferment policy, which only allows for a defined period of deferment, after which sportsmen must return to fulfill their national service duties.
On 11 January 2019, Davis had not appealed for deferment again. A month later on 18 February 2019, MINDEF released an official statement stating that Davis has committed offences under the Enlistment Act for failing to report for National Service and staying overseas without a valid exit permit. He is liable upon conviction to a fine of up to $10,000 and/or imprisonment of up to three years.
Subsequently, on 18 February 2019, the Football Association of Singapore officially issued a press release that it is extremely disappointed with Benjamin Davis’ default of his NS obligations. They stated that it is thoroughly irresponsible on the part of Davis, and also reneges on his assurance to the FAS that Davis would discharge his NS commitments and play for the Singapore national team. Having lived in Singapore for many years, Davis had benefited from the resources used to educate and train him as a footballer over this period of time. He was invited to play for the Singapore national team, which he agreed. The FAS had supported Benjamin Davis’ application to defer NS on this basis. While the matter will now be dealt with by MINDEF, the FAS wished to state categorically that it do not condone such conduct nor did it ever arise in their discussions with Davis that he would seek to avoid his liability.
In mid-2019, Ben Davis eventually chose Thailand after disputes over his attempts to defer and escape mandatory national service. He also declared that he has no intention to return to Singapore despite being a citizen and spending his formative years there, or to fulfill his National Service obligations in the near future to develop his career and have no regrets doing so.