SINGAPORE – For a fourth consecutive year, Danelle Tan will miss the Chinese New Year festivities with her family, but the 20-year-old Brisbane Roar footballer will be spending it with her new friends in the Australian city.
Tan missed the celebrations in 2022 and 2023 as she was based in London, where she was studying at Mill Hill School. She went on to become the first Singaporean woman to take part in a European football league when she played for the London Bees in the FA Women’s National League South.
In those two years, she rang in the New Year at the boarding house where she lived with other Chinese students, helping prepare handmade dumplings and putting up decorations.
In 2024, she was in Germany where she became the first Asian to join the Borussia Dortmund women’s team. There, she spent the festival with a German couple who hosted her for dinner at their house.
Tan said: “I have not been back for Chinese New Year for the past four years. It is always tough when you’re not celebrating with your family and extended relatives. You always feel a tinge of sadness when you see pictures in the family group chat. But you get used to it and you make the most of it.
“I am lucky that I found really good people to celebrate with all these years. I am grateful that even though I am away, there are always people who made it special and made it a home away from home for me.”
Tan said that being able to catch up with extended family and playing the card game “dai di” (big two) with her cousins while engaged in hearty conversations are some of the things she misses dearly.
“The best part was to meet relatives that you don’t catch up with often. Every year, it is the occasion for which one of my granduncles, who stays in Hong Kong, flies back. So it really is a nice time to be with family,” she said.
As Singaporeans usher in the Year of the Snake on Jan 29, Tan will be hard at work at A-League Women club Brisbane Roar’s training facility at South Pine Sporting Complex in Brendale, Queensland, as she looks to break into the club’s match-day squad.
Last August, Tan joined Brisbane until the end of the 2024-25 season.
Tan said: “Overseas, it is normal to still train on most public holidays. On Boxing Day here, we still trained. This is the dream life where you get to do what you love for a living, so all the sacrifices are part and parcel of it. I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
During the New Year, she will be gathering at a friend’s house in Brisbane with a “few of my South-east Asian friends here who are Malaysians, Indonesians and Australians with Chinese roots”. They will have a “simple dinner and just chill and eat together”.
Danelle’s mother Dawn Tan, 50, head of curriculum and training at private pre-school Star Learners, told The Straits Times that her oldest daughter’s absence is felt during festive gatherings. She plans to video call Danelle during lohei at the family’s reunion dinner, just as she does every year.
Dawn said: “While we accept that she can’t be back for Chinese New Year, we still miss her, especially since this festival is about celebrating family reunions. We miss the family conversations with everyone present, the interactions among all the siblings.
“Danelle is the live wire in our family – she gets us to play games together, sing and play the guitar or piano together. So these bursts of energy within the family is definitely missing.”
Aside from the New Year, Tan is hoping to have more occasions to celebrate during her time Down Under.
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After missing Brisbane’s first eight games of the season due to knee surgery, she made her debut in the 72nd minute of their 2-1 loss to Canberra United on Jan 4, but has not featured in the team’s four matches since.
Tan said: “Of course my wish is that my team wins the league, but personally I hope to get more game time and hopefully I can score a couple of goals. It has been challenging competing with a lot of good players for spots in the team, but I hope to see the field more and contribute to the team’s success.”
