Young Lions Football Club, commonly known as Young Lions, is a developmental

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

club based in

Kallang Kallang ( ) is a Planning Areas of Singapore, planning area and New towns of Singapore, residential zone located in the Central Region, Singapore, Central Region of Singapore. Development of the town is centered around the Kallang River, the l ...

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

, which competes in the

Singapore Premier League The Singapore Premier League, commonly abbreviated as the SPL, officially known as the AIA Singapore Premier League for sponsorship reasons, is a men's professional football league sanctioned by the Football Association of Singapore (FAS), wh ...

. The team is under the control of the

Football Association of Singapore The Football Association of Singapore (FAS) is the governing body responsible for the administration of football in Singapore. Established in 1892 as the Singapore Football Association (SFA), it is the oldest football association in all of ...

. Young Lions are one of the few football clubs in the world made up of young Singaporean footballers serving their compulsory two-year national service, which places an age restriction on team members while playing in a top-flight professional league. Players are on loan from several local Singapore Premier League clubs, and would spend two years with the side before returning. Young Lions play their home matches at the

Jalan Besar Stadium Jalan Besar Stadium, officially the Jalan Besar ActiveSG Stadium, is a football stadium located in Kallang, Singapore. The stadium is part of the Jalan Besar Sports and Recreation Centre, a community sports facility that includes the stadium as ...

. Their best league finish was third, which they achieved in 2004 and 2006.

History

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 The Southeast Asian Games, commonly known as SEA Games is a biennial multi-sport event involving participants from the current 11 countries of Southeast Asia. The games are under the regulation of the Southeast Asian Games Federation with sup ...

. 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. In 2023, Young Lions signed the Japanese duo Jun Kobayashi and Kan Kobayashi from Albirex Niigata (S), the first foreign players since the French Benjamin Bertrand from

Tours Tours ( ; ) is the largest city in the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Indre-et-Loire. The Communes of France, commune of Tours had 136,463 inhabita ...

in 2016. In preparation for the 2024–25 Singapore Premier League season, Young Lions signed additional two Japanese players, Kaisei Ogawa and Itsuki Enomoto, and the Australian Rashid Hayek from Western United, making it the first time the club has five foreigners in the squad. On 28 March 2025, Young Lions recorded their highest ever win during the 2024–25 Singapore Cup fixture against Albirex. Zikos Chua, and later Kaisei Ogawa, became the first players in the club history to score four goals in one match.

Malaysian domestic competition

In 2011, the Football Association of Singapore and the

Football Association of Malaysia The Football Association of Malaysia (commonly abbreviated as FAM; ) is the national governing body of football in Malaysia, headquartered at Wisma FAM. The FAM is also one of the founding members of both the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) a ...

reached an agreement that would see greater cooperation between the two nations. One of the intended avenues would see Young Lions play in the

Malaysian Super League The Malaysia Super League (), known simply as the Super League (), is the men's top professional football division of the Malaysian football league system. Administered by the Football Malaysia Limited Liability Partnership (FMLLP), now known ...

and

Malaysia Cup The Malaysia Cup (), formerly known as Malaya Cup, is an annual football tournament in Malaysia, held at the end of the calendar year. The cup was first held in 1921. Despite its prestige and popularity as the country's oldest cup tournament, i ...

from 2012. 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. Ultimately, a new team was created, the

LionsXII LionsXII ("Lions Twelve"), also known as Singapore LionsXII, was a Singaporean youth football club founded in 2011 that played in the Malaysia Super League, the top tier of Malaysian football, from their inaugural season until their dissolutio ...

, while the 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 The Prime League was the reserve and youth team football league of Singapore's S.League. Teams involved in the league are primarily made up of youth players from the S.League clubs. The Prime League was founded in 1997. S.League clubs are requir ...

to allow their players to gain more exposure and match experience by playing against older and more established players.

Stadium

Young Lions had played at the Jalan Besar Stadium since their inception of participating in the S.League. The stadium can holds up a

seating capacity Seating capacity is the number of people who can be seated in a specific space, in terms of both the physical space available and limitations set by law. Seating capacity can be used in the description of anything ranging from an automobile that ...

of 8,000. In 2012, As part of the LionsXII's sponsorship by Kingsmen, a local fan club, the King George's Stand was built using a removable stand, increasing the stadium's capacity to 10,000. On 30 October 2012, an LED scoreboard was implemented at the Gallery stand to provide better quality video to the spectators, allowing replay video highlights of the action on the field during matchdays. Two new screens were also placed at the two ends of the Grandstand, North and South, to enable better match experience for the Gallery fans.

Sponsorship and naming history

Players

(on loan from

Lion City Sailors Lion City Sailors Football Club, commonly referred to as the Sailors or LCS, is a Singaporean professional association football, football club based in Bishan, Singapore, Bishan. It competes in the Singapore Premier League, the top tier of the Si ...

)

Players on loan

Technical staff

Source:

Performance in domestic competitions

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

saw the introduction of

penalty shoot-out The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

s if a match ended in a draw in regular time. Winners of penalty shoot-outs gained two points instead of one.

Notable foreign players

* Craig Foster (1991) * Kazeem Babatunde (2003–2004) * Vladan Seric (2004) * Greg Nwokolo (2005) * Moudourou Moise (2006–2008) * Daniel Hammond (2008) * Obadin Aikhena (2008–2009) *

Yang Mu Yang Mu ( zh, t=楊牧, p=Yáng Mù, September 6, 1940 – March 13, 2020) was a pen name of Wang Ching-hsien (), a Taiwanese poet, essayist, critic, translator, Professor Emeritus of Comparative Literature at the University of Washington, and fo ...

(2009) * Luka Savić (2010) * Sirina Camara (2012) * Jonathan Toto (2012–2013) *

Sherif El-Masri Sherif El-Masri (born 5 February 1990) is a Canadian professional soccer player who plays as a winger. Early and personal life He was born in Scarborough, Ontario to a Tunisian father and a Guyanese mother. His younger sister Mariam is also a ...

(2012–2015) * Benjamin Lee (2013) * Jordan Webb (2014–2016) * Benjamin Bertrand (2016) * Armin Maier (2017) * Jun Kobayashi (2023–''present'') * Kan Kobayashi (2023–''present'') * Itsuki Enomoto (2024) * Kaisei Ogawa (2024–''present'')

Coaching history

Records and statistics

''As of 8 June 2025''

Most appearances

Top scorers

Team records

; Biggest wins: * 7–1 vs Sinchi on 23 September 2004 * 7–1 vs Albirex Niigata (S) on 28 March 2025 ;Heaviest Defeats: * 1–10 vs

(13 August 2022) ; Youngest goal scorer: * Khairin Nadim, 16 years 6 months and 9 days (On 17 November 2020 vs Tampines Rovers) ; Oldest goal scorer: * Khairul Amri, 31 years 6 months and 11 days (On 1 April 2023 vs Geylang International) ; Youngest debutant: * Raoul Suhaimi, 15 years 7 months 27 days (15 May 2021 vs Albirex Niigata (S))

Notable Hat-tricks

Personal awards

Domestic

*League Young Player of the Year ** Hariss Harun (2010)

Others

* People's Choice Award **

Agu Casmir Agu Casmir (born 23 March 1984) is a former professional association football, footballer who played as a striker (association football), striker or attacking midfielder. Born in Nigeria, he played for the Singapore national football team, Sin ...

(2004) ** Khairul Amri (2006) **

Safuwan Baharudin Muhammad Safuwan bin Baharudin (born 22 September 1991) is a Singaporean professional footballer who plays as a centre-back or a defensive midfielder for Malaysia Super League club Selangor, which he captains, and the Singapore national team ...

(2011)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Young Lions FC Young Lions FC Football clubs in Singapore Association football clubs established in 2002 2002 establishments in Singapore Singapore Premier League clubs