HONG KONG -- At the age of 35, Gavin Lee could easily still be mistaken for a footballer. Maybe not even a veteran one, given his youthful looks.
And he was once on course to becoming one, having been part of the National Football Academy in the same batch as current Singapore stalwarts Hariss Harun and Izwan Mahbud when they were all among the country's brightest prospects in their mid-teens.
As Singapore made history at Kai Tak Stadium on Tuesday with a stirring 2-1 comeback win over Hong Kong that sealed a first-ever AFC Asian Cup qualification on merit, Lee was amongst it all -- celebrating alongside Hariss and Izwan, who were both heroes on that pitch.
For Lee? He simply masterminded it all, with his differing career path somehow leading him to becoming the interim Lions coach that has achieved what none before him managed.
His story is, by now, not a completely untold one.
After deciding not to pursue playing professionally, Lee would go into coaching and would remarkably land his first managerial role -- at Singapore Premier League giants BG Tampines Rovers, no less -- at just the age of 29, a role he held until only earlier this year.
He would impress enough to be invited to also be involved in the national team setup and, back in June, when his predecessor Tsutomu Ogura abruptly stepped down for personal reasons, Lee was the easy choice to be fill the interim role with a far-less straightforward task: four remaining 2027 Asian Cup qualifiers to reach the main event.
Now that he has done so, there will certainly be plenty calling for him to get the role permanently.
Lee has always remained tight-lipped on the whole issue.
Before the match, he said he would only stop to consider the achievement on a personal level once it had actually been done.
Then, after the game, when asked if he now felt he proved he was the man for the job, he claimed that all along he was going to wait until after Nov. 18 -- the date of Tuesday's game -- to think about it, then impishly adding: "It is still Nov. 18 last I checked."
Of course, Lee wants to be the fulltime coach of Singapore -- and the first local in the role since 2018. Who in his position wouldn't? Wisely, he is keeping his cards close to his chest.
What he did not, or was unable to, mask on Tuesday was simply the jubilation at having done what was asked of him when he was handed the interim reins -- regardless of whether it had, at the time, seemed a realistic proposition.
And, in an almost full-circle moment, it -- in a way - might have brought him back to those teenage days playing alongside Hariss and Izwan, with an even-younger Safuwan Baharudin just a year below them.
"My feelings right now are that I'm just so happy for them," Lee said, in his post-match news conference.
"And the senior boys - Izwan, Saf, Hariss - they actually made me cry. And also for the staff, because you should see how much it means to everyone.
"I'm just so happy for everyone involved -- all the players, staff and administrators. What we've achieved tonight is a consequence of everybody pulling together.
"Everyone has made my life very easy from the get-go.
"I'm always here in front of everyone so oftentimes I think everybody looks at me, but none of this would have been possible if not for the PE teachers in the past, the youth coaches in the past, the school teachers in the past.
"This milestone that we've achieved is for everyone. It's for Singapore, not just me or the national team."
Lee's relative youth and his likeable personality have not made him immune from criticism.
He is a firm believer in his playing systems and philosophy and is loath to veer away, confident it will eventually come good.
At times, like in the first half of the away game against India, it almost caused self-inflicted problems as Singapore just could not cope with the opposition press but insisted on trying to play their way out -- giving away possession inside their own defensive third time after time.
Likewise on Tuesday, even after falling behind after just 15 minutes, there was no immediate switch in urgency. If it had not been coined by the British government back in 1939, Lee could easily have copyrighted the phrase "keep calm and carry on".
But when it works, credit has to be given where it is due.
The masterstroke came with the 58th-minute introduction of Ilhan Fandi, just when the Lions started to turn up the intensity by a notch.
By the 68th minute, with a ingenious assist and a stunning goal, Ilhan had helped Singapore to a 2-1 lead they were ultimately able to keep hold of for the remainder of the contest.
As always, Lee deflected any praise regarding that tactical move although he did reveal that there had been a plan all along.
"We had a plan," he added. "Before the game, we'd been speaking that football is not perfect, just like life.
"And when s--- hits the fan, it's our job to react and deal with it. As long as we stayed in the game, we always knew we have quality players to help us finish the game.
"We felt that Hong Kong would defend us man-to-man in midfield so, in the first half, we made it a bit predictable for them. We knew when we made that change it would give them a problem. Fortunately for us, we scored.
"I wouldn't take all the credit because I've made decisions before that didn't come off and then you guys [the media] say I'm bodoh [stupid]. So it just is what it is.
"In games, sometimes it happens but we go into whatever decisions with clear ideas and clear intentions."
Maybe it will soon be, or already is, clear to the decision makers that Lee should be the one leading Singapore at the Asian Cup.
And perhaps it was always on the cards.
Just not with his feet, but with his head.