Young Lions FC

Young Lions Football Club, commonly known as Young Lions is a Singaporean professional football club that competes in the Singapore Premier League. The team is under the direct control of the Football Association of Singapore (FAS), but is managed as a football club. The Young Lions are one of the few football clubs in the world which place an age restriction on team members while playing in a top-flight professional league.

The Young Lions plays their league matches at the Jurong West Stadium. Their best S.League finish was third, which they achieved in 2004 and 2006.^{[citation needed]}

Goal[]

By entering the Young Lions into the S.League, the FAS hopes to expose young players to top-level competition, thus helping to prepare them for international tournaments such as the Southeast Asian Games. While the bulk of the Young Lions squad is made up of members of Singapore's national under-23 team, the club also takes in promising young foreign players (e.g. Luka Savić). However, foreign players are normally only recruited into the Young Lions squad if they could potentially change their nationality to Singaporean and be eligible to play international football for Singapore at some point in the future.

Malaysian domestic competition[]

In 2011, the Football Association of Singapore and the Football Association of Malaysia reached an agreement that would see greater cooperation between the two nations. One of the intended avenues will see Young Lions play in the Malaysian Super League and Malaysia Cup from 2012 onwards, the first time a Singaporean team has participated in Malaysian domestic football since Singapore won the 1994 M-League and Malaysia Cup double. Although the new Singapore team will have the existing Young Lions set up at its core, the squad will be permitted up to five local players over the age of 14–16 players, as well as a number of overseas players in accordance with the quota set out by the rules of the Malaysian competitions the team will play in.^[1]

Ultimately though, a new team was created for the Malaysia league: the LionsXII, while Young Lions remained in the S.League.

National Football Academy[]

Most of the Young Lions players come from the NFA (National Football Academy) and new players (from the NFA) will be promoted to the Young Lions squad every season.

The National Football Academy enters both the Singapore NFA U-17 and Singapore NFA U-18 teams into the Prime League to allow their players to gain more exposure and match experience by playing against older and more established players.^[2]

Performance in domestic competitions[]

• 2003 saw the introduction of penalty shoot-outs if a match ended in a draw in regular time. Winners of penalty shoot-outs gained two points instead of one.

Players[]

As of 17 Jul 2021^[3]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 2 DF  SIN Nazhiim Harman 3 DF  SIN Danial Scott Crichton 4 DF  SIN Danish Irfan Azman (Captain) 5 DF  SIN Syabil Hisham 6 MF  SIN Jacob Mahler 7 DF  SIN Zulqarnaen Suzliman 8 MF  SIN Rezza Rezky 10 MF  SIN Daniel Goh 11 MF  SIN Rasaq Akeem 12 MF  SIN Joel Chew 13 DF  SIN Syahrul Sazali (Vice Captain) 14 MF  SIN Hami Syahin 15 MF  SIN Amir Syafiz 16 DF  SIN Ryhan Stewart 17 FW  SIN Ilhan Fandi 18 GK  SIN Ridhwan Fikri

No. Pos. Nation Player 19 FW  SIN Khairin Nadim 20 MF  SIN 21 DF  SIN Sahffee Jubpre 22 MF  SIN 23 MF  SIN Harhys Stewart 24 MF  SIN Zamani Zamri 25 GK  SIN 26 DF  SIN Alif Iskandar 27 DF  SIN Arshad Shamim 28 DF  SIN 29 DF  SIN Raoul Suhaimi 30 MF  SIN 31 MF  SIN Bill Mamadou 32 GK  SIN 39 FW  SIN 40 GK  SIN

Staff[]

Source:^[4]

See also[]

• Azkals Development Team, a Filipino professional football club whose players also play for the Philippines' national youth teams.

References[]

External links[]

• Official club website
• S.League website page on Young Lions