Young Lions FC

Young Lions

Full name	Young Lions
Nickname(s)	The Young Lions
Founded	2002
Ground	Jalan Besar Stadium
Capacity	8,000
Team Manager	Kevin Wong
Coach	Fandi Ahmad
League	Singapore Premier League
2017	S.League, 9th
Website	Club website
Home colours Away colours

Young Lions Football Club (known as Garena Young Lions under a sponsorship deal with internet and mobile platform company Garena from the 2016 season)^[1] was a professional under-23 football team from Singapore. Selected players from the squad were also chosen to form the Singapore national under-23 football team. The team comes under the direct control of the Football Association of Singapore (FAS), but is managed as a football club and has competed in Singapore's top club competition – the Singapore Premier League – since 2003. 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. As such, 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. Most of the Singaporean members in the Young Lions squad also represent the country in under-23 international tournaments.

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 like Luka Savic in 2010. He played for FC Barcelona's youth team and once played for Villarreal CF B. He now plies his trade for Singapore Armed Forces FC in the S.League. 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.

The aim of creating the club was to give young Singaporean players who had shown talent and a potential the opportunity for further exposure in Singapore's top league. It was also hoped that keeping the bulk of the national under-23 squad together at club level would improve Singapore's chances in the international arena, particularly at the Southeast Asian Games (where only under-23 players are allowed to compete in the football competition).

The Young Lions play their league matches at the newly re-turfed Jalan Besar Stadium. Their best S.League finish was third, which they achieved in 2004 and 2006.

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.^[2]

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.^[3]

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.

Sponsors

• Main sponsor: Garena
• Kit supplier: Nike

Current squad

As of 26 February 2018.^[4]

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

No. Position Player 1 GK Hairul Syirhan 2 DF Nazhiim Harman 4 MF Aniq Iskandar 5 DF Adam Hakeem 6 FW Danial Syafiq Mustaffa 7 MF Naqiuddin Eunos 8 MF Joshua Pereira 9 FW Ikhsan Fandi 10 FW Sharul Nizam 11 MF Zulqarnaen Suzliman 12 DF Syahrul Sazali 13 DF Amer Hakeem 14 MF Hami Syahin 15 MF Syed Firdaus Hassan 17 DF Irfan Fandi 18 GK Zharfan Rohaizad

No. Position Player 19 MF Naufal Azman 20 MF Asshukrie Wahid 21 DF Prakash Raj 22 MF Haiqal Pashia Anugrah 23 DF Ariyan Shamsuddin 24 DF R Aaravin 25 DF Rusyaidi Salime 27 DF Taufiq Muqminin Hossain (captain) 28 MF Amirul Hakim 30 GK Adib Hakim 31 MF Jacob Mahler 32 FW Ifwat Ismail 35 GK Ahmad Fadly Tamiri GK Ridhwan Fikri Aban DF Lionel Tan MF Gareth Low

Past coaches

Year	Coach
1 January 2009 – 31 December 2010	V. Sundramoorthy
1 January 2011 – December 2012	Robin Chitrakar
14 January 2013 – 11 June 2015	Aide Iskandar
July 2015 – 31 December 2015[5]	Jürgen Raab
1 January 2016 – 15 February 2016	Richard Tardy (interim)
15 February 2016[6] – 9 November 2016	Patrick Hesse
9 November 2016 – 17 May 2017	V. Selvaraj
17 May 2017 – 5 July 2017	Richard Tardy (interim)
5 July 2017 – 14 December 2017	Vincent Subramaniam
14 December 2017 –	Fandi Ahmad

Current coaching staff

Source: "Club Profile – Garena Young Lions". S-League. Retrieved 3 February 2016.