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Finally, Noh Alam Shah’s spell with Arema has come to an end.

Since arriving in Indonesia ahead of the 2009-10 Indonesian Super League season, the Singaporean striker has rarely been out of the news as he has enjoyed a love-hate relationship with the club from Malang, East Java.

With fellow Singaporean Muhammad Ridhuan, he helped lead Arema to an epic title that season, culminating in a trophy win in front of 85,000 fans at Bung Karno Stadium in Jakarta. And Alam Shah, nicknamed Ah Long or NAS, is a player for the big stage.

In his native Singapore, he was seen as a fiery character and many there compared him negatively with what is now looked back on as a golden age in football on the island, when players like Varadaraju Sundramoorthy and Fandi Ahmad played the game as gentlemen.

Alam Shah, perceived wisdom had it, was at odds with how Singaporeans viewed themselves. He was outspoken, controversial and always upsetting authority — very un-Singaporean traits.

Off the field, the striker was well spoken and polite. On it he played with a passion that coaches loved, but there were times when a red mist would descend and he would be up before the disciplinary committee explaining away his latest misdemeanor.

Arema and Alam Shah were the perfect match. The club’s fanatical supporters, the Aremania, provided the kind of passionate support week in, week out, that the striker never saw in the Singapore League with Tampines Rovers.

In every home game at Kanjuruhan Stadium, 25,000 fans bray the names of their heroes. It was what NAS craved: recognition. There was sure none for him in Singapore.

He first heard about the Aremania from a movie called “The Conductors,” by independent Indonesian filmmaker Andibachtiar Yusuf, who specializes in films about football culture here.

NAS watched the DVD transfixed and “kept rewinding back” to the parts that showed the Aremania in full voice.

A few months later, his dream move came true. He flew to Indonesia, leaving behind the Singaporean football public’s apathy, and was welcomed with open arms by the Aremania, who saw the lad with ancestors from the island of Bawean, East Java, as one of their own: Open, fully committed and passionate about the game.

That debut season was not all smooth sailing, though. Salaries and bonuses were often paid late, but on the field Arema performed well, even managing to win at Persiwa Wamena, only the second team to do so in the top flight.

He nearly left at the end of the title-winning season. Understanding that defender and captain Pierre Njanka was moving to Sriwijaya FC, both Alam Shah and Ridhuan caught a flight to Palembang to join their teammate, only to find out Njanka would not be signing after all.

Behind the scenes, all was not well at Arema as payments and bonuses were put off by the club. Coach Robert Alberts moved on, as did Njanka, but most stayed behind. Still, the team was ultimately unable to repeat its title triumph or impose itself on the Asian Champions League.

Ahead of the 2011-12 season, there were squabbles in Malang over who was the real owner of Arema, and the club “split” down the middle. One version joined the Indonesian Super League, now the rebel league, while another, featuring many of the players from the title-winning season, opted for the official Indonesian Premier League, perhaps figuring they would at least get paid on time under different owners.

But trouble still reigned behind the scenes as the IPL version of the club tried its very best to split in two. At one point there were two coaches preparing two different teams for the same game, taking Indonesian football to an even more farcical level.

Both club and player have said little about the departure just ahead of the transfer window.

Already Alam Shah has been linked with a return to Singapore and Tampines Rovers, where he enjoys a close relationship with the club’s owner. But returning to crowds of a few hundred and the constant sniping aimed at him won’t be welcomed by the player.

A big-time player, NAS now knows what it is like to have a large crowd baying his name. Chances are his next destination will be another big, passionate club whose fans will take the striker to their hearts.

Wherever he goes, though, the bonds between him and the Aremania run deep. The striker has said he will always be Aremania.

Alam Shah, for all his foibles, is a player who can create a deep, meaningful bond with people, whether it be the fans at Arema or the owner at Tampines. His infectious character will hopefully be around Indonesian football for some time to come.