The Singaporean-Welsh footballer keeps his eye on the prize and shares that TikTok videos are secondary to football.
If you are a frequent user of the popular video-creating application, TikTok, Harhys Stewart would probably strike you as a familiar face.
The 19-year-old gained traction among the TikTok community in February this year, when a fellow team-mate started uploading 15-second clips of his friend group, which included Harhys. The content of the videos typically features the group going about their day-to-day lives. These videos would garner an average of 300,000 views, and the highest viewed video to date has over 5,600,000 views. The group of 6 mainly featured on the TikTok videos have dubbed themselves as the YoungBluds.
In March, they launched an online clothing store which was well received by their fans. Harhys shares that they come up with the T-shirt designs themselves and inspiration is drawn from the clothing they would personally wear.
TikTok users rave about Harhys’ good looks and his following grew massively after trending on the “For You Page”, a page which recommends the most popular and trendy videos. He gained over 40,000 Instagram Followers and 46,000 TikTok followers. Initially, he did not think much of these videos and described the attention he received as “unexpected and overwhelming”.
However, he is much more than just a good-looking face. With a burning passion for soccer fueled ever since he was young, he is now playing professionally for the Young Lions, in the Singapore Premier League (SPL). He is also a business student studying in Singapore Sports School, and made his professional soccer debut earlier this year, in March.
When asked how he copes with both his studies and soccer, Harhys explains that the Sports School’s curriculum timetable allocates time for soccer practices after academic lessons. He shares that academic lessons typically end around 3 pm and his training is held after.
Despite being in an early stage in his career, Harhys has confidence in his soccer abilities and hopes to secure a spot in the National Football Team, after he enlists for National Service in 2021.
Read on to find out more about the Footballer’s rise to fame and plans for the future!
What has been your greatest achievement in your soccer career so far?
HARHYS : This year, I made my professional debut. As a kid, this is something you always dream of. To finally be able to say that you have played in a professional football game, it’s like a moment on your bucket list you can tick off. It was a proud moment for me.
Can you tell me more about Young Bluds, the online store you are a part of?
H: It was started by me and my friends, we all play football. The people involved are me, Ilhan Fandi, Danial Scott, Haziq Alaba and Abdul Rasaq. We play football together; we always hang out and we are always messing around. So, we were experimenting, like: why don’t we just create some shirts? We wanted to release something that we personally like, and what we would wear.
So, I noticed you’ve gone viral on TikTok, how do you feel about this attention?
H: When you’re younger, you always dream that you’re going to be famous. It’s nice and I didn’t really expect it, because it was out of nowhere. It’s kind of weird, I don’t really post anything (on TikTok) but I’ve still got a following. But, it’s nice to have eyes on you and be well-known but sometimes I’m just like, chill. I’m not really focused on it, I’m just accepting it as it goes and focusing on football and school at the moment, not paying too much attention to that. TikTok is a fun thing on the side, but my priority is obviously football.
Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
H: In 10 years, I hope to still be playing football overseas in Europe, Japan or around Asia. If I continue to work hard and if luck is on my side, I feel like I have the opportunity to go overseas and play football, to have a long career.
Edited by: Eunice Tan and Coen Sim
Proofread by: Eunice Tan
