The Singapore national under-23 football team is the national under-23

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

team of

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 ...

. The team comes under the organisation 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 ...

(FAS). Players are usually selected from 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 ...

team, Young Lions as the squad is composed mostly of players undergoing their

National Service National service is a system of compulsory or voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act ...

and also because of their time playing together in the same squad.

History

On 25 March 2014,

(FAS) announced that Singapore U-23 team will face France U-21 on 2 June in

Reunion Island Reunion may refer to: * Class reunion * Family reunion Reunion, Réunion, Re-union, Reunions or The Reunion may also refer to: Places * Réunion, a French overseas department and island in the Indian Ocean * Reunion, Commerce City, Colorado, U ...

where the team is helms by Singapore senior national team head coach,

Bernd Stange Bernd Walter Stange (born 14 March 1948) is a German football manager who last managed the Syria national team. During his playing career, he played for Chemie Gnaschwitz, Vorwärts Bautzen, and HSG DHfK Leipzig as a defender. Playing care ...

. The match was put together in a bid to convince the

Singapore National Olympic Council The Singapore National Olympic Council (SNOC) is the National Olympic Committee and National Paralympic Committee for the Republic of Singapore. It was founded in 1947 as the Singapore Olympic and Sports Council (SOSC) before renaming to its cur ...

that the under-23 deserve to represent the nation at the

2014 Asian Games The 2014 Asian Games (), officially known as the 17th Asian Games () and also known as Incheon 2014 (), were a pan-Asian multi-sport event held from 19 September to 4 October 2014 in Incheon, South Korea. On 17 April 2007, Incheon was awarded ...

held in

Incheon Incheon is a city located in northwestern South Korea, bordering Seoul and Gyeonggi Province to the east. Inhabited since the Neolithic, Incheon was home to just 4,700 people when it became an international port in 1883. As of February 2020, ...

, South Korea in September. Singapore U-23 end up suffered a 6–0 defeat at the

Stade Paul Julius Bénard The Olympic Stade Paul-Julius-Bénard, or officially the Stade olympique Bénard-Paul-Julius, is a stadium of the island of Réunion, Department of Overseas French and outermost region of the European Union in the southwest of the Indian Ocean. Ma ...

with goals coming from

Samuel Umtiti Samuel Yves Um Titi (; born 14 November 1993), known as Samuel Umtiti, is a French professional Association football, footballer who plays as a centre back for Ligue 1 club Lille OSC, Lille. Umtiti began his professional career with Olympique L ...

Paul-Georges Ntep Paul-Georges Ntep de Madiba (born 29 July 1992) is a Cameroonian former professional footballer who played as a winger or forward. He was a France youth international, and eventually made two appearances for the France national team in 2015. He ...

Kingsley Coman Kingsley Junior Coman (; born 13 June 1996) is a French professional footballer who plays as a winger for club Bayern Munich and the France national team. Trained at Paris Saint-Germain's academy, Coman moved to Juventus in 2014 on the expir ...

Florian Thauvin Florian Tristan Mariano Thauvin (born 26 January 1993) is a French professional association football, footballer who plays as a winger (association football), right winger or forward (association football), forward and Captain (association footba ...

and Neal Maupay. Singapore then played in the 2014 Asian Games where they were placed in Group C alongside Tajikistan U-23, Oman U-23 and Palestine U-23. Singapore conceded a late goal against Tajikistan U-23 in the first match losing 1–0 to them. Singapore U-23 then faced Oman U-23 where the team was down at 3–1 before

Faris Ramli Muhammad Faris bin Ramli (born 24 August 1992) is a Singaporean professional footballer who plays primarily as a winger or an attacking midfielder for Malaysia Super League club DPMM FC and the Singapore national team. Considered one of th ...

and

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 ...

scored the goal to equalise the match at 3–3. In the last match fixtures against Palestine U-23, the team won 2–1 with

Shahfiq Ghani Muhammad Shahfiq bin Ghani (born 17 March 1992), also known as Shahfiq Shahfiq or just Shahfiq, is a Singaporean professional footballer who plays either as a centre forward or attacking midfielder for Malaysia Super League club Negeri Sembilan ...

scoring a brace in the match. Singapore got 4 points in the group stage which would have seen the team qualified to the Round of 16 but Tajikistan U-23 scored a last minute goal against Oman U-23 which see them qualified to the knockout stages instead.

Controversial

Singapore under-22 has a disastrous performance at the

2023 SEA Games The 2023 Southeast Asian Games (, UNGEGN: ''Kar Brâkuŏt Keila Brâchéachéatĕ Asi Aknéy 2023''), also known as the 32nd Southeast Asian Games, or the 32nd SEA Games, and commonly known as Cambodia 2023, were the 32nd edition of the Southe ...

in Cambodia. Not only the team failed to win a single match, the team were mauled 7–0 by arch-rivals Malaysia U-22 in their final match, and ended the campaign finishing in tenth place at the rock-bottom of the table ranking as the worst team at the tournament. On 18 May 2023,

(FAS) announced that coach Philippe Aw has been granted a ‘leave of absence’ as the head coach of the Young Lions team in which a technical review of the SEA Games performance will subsequently take place after his return. The poor performances of the Singapore U-23 team in at the SEA GAMES have triggered fans who vented their anger and frustrations on social media, with some calling for officials from the FAS to be axed and the time to look at the appointments at every level of Singapore football to ensure that the people of the right expertise are appointed for the right jobs. Acting FAS president, Bernard Tan also added that until the review has been completed, the Singapore U-22 has decided not to send the team to the upcoming

2023 AFF U-23 Championship The 2023 AFF U-23 Championship was the 4th edition of the AFF U-23 Championship, organised by the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF). The tournament took place from 17 to 26 August in Rayong province, Rayong, Thailand. Vietnam national under-23 foo ...

held in August and the

Asian Games The Asian Games, also known as Asiad, is a continental multi-sport event held every four years for athletes of Asia. The Games were regulated by Asian Games Federation from the 1951 Asian Games, first Games in New Delhi, India in 1951, until ...

Hangzhou Hangzhou, , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ; formerly romanized as Hangchow is a sub-provincial city in East China and the capital of Zhejiang province. With a population of 13 million, the municipality comprises ten districts, two counti ...

that will be held in September. As FAS recalibrates its priority on two tournaments, the

2024 AFC U-23 Asian Cup qualification The 2024 AFC U-23 Asian Cup qualification was an international men's under-23 football competition which decided the participating teams of the 2024 AFC U-23 Asian Cup. A total of 16 teams qualified to play in the final tournament, including Qat ...

fixtures being held in Vietnam and the

2025 SEA Games The 2025 SEA Games (, , ), officially called the 33rd SEA Games ( , , ) and commonly known as Thailand 2025, is an upcoming international multi-sport event sanctioned by the Southeast Asian Games Federation (SEAGF). The event is scheduled to t ...

. In the review, one of the recommendations was for the Young Lions to focus on the two above mentioned competitions and for all other tournaments to be regarded as developmental opportunities. On 7 July 2023, FAS unveiled 10 recommendations to improve the country's performance at future SEA Games including giving key U-23 and U-22 players more game time and to approach the multisport event as a two-year project to allow the coach and team to develop over a longer period. The recommendations were formulated based on internal reports submitted by FAS departments after the tournament, “objective" analytics, “subjective" feedback gathered by a SEA Games review committee which interviewed personnel involved in the Games, and discussions with individuals including from other countries' football associations. FAS noted that only eight players in the SEA Games squad were playing regularly in the

2023 Singapore Premier League The 2023 Singapore Premier League (also known as the AIA Singapore Premier League due to sponsorship reasons) was the 6th season of the Singapore Premier League, the top-flight Singaporean professional league for association football clubs, since ...

season where the lack of game time possibly affected the ability of players, especially those not exposed to sufficient minutes, to cope with the tempo of the tournament, where a game is played every two to three days over the course of two days On 12 July 2023, FAS has confirmed the departure of Philippe Aw as U-23 head coach. He was replaced by former national team player,

Nazri Nasir Mohamed Nazri bin Nasir (born 17 January 1971) is a Singaporean professional football manager and former footballer. He was the captain of the Singapore national team from 1997 to 2003, and led the team to the 1998 AFF Championship title. He ...

who lead the squad during the 2024 AFC U-23 Asian Cup qualifiers. Additionally, Nazri, who is currently the Senior Singapore national team assistant coach, will also be assigned to the Young Lions team in the Singapore Premier League. This enables him to track the progress and oversee the development of the young footballers. Players will also have individual development plans to allow the coach to improve their abilities over the two years of preparation. The review panel observed that players arrived for pre games training with different levels of fitness and conditioning. A standard operating procedure will be drawn up to aim to deliver at least two warm-up matches prior to the tournaments. The FAS will also adjust the league scheduling to ensure the age-group players meet this requirement with a minimum of two weeks preparation for the priority tournaments while diets of the players will also be planned when the FAS has control of the meals which currently, only hydration is monitored, while players are advised on healthy eating. Nazri have his provisional squad report for centralised training from 21 August 2023 in which FAS has made adjustments to the 2023 Singapore Premier League fixture calendar to allow the team to have uninterrupted 14-day preparation as they travelled to Thailand to play a couple of friendly before flying off to Vietnam for their 2024 AFC U-23 Asian Cup qualifiers. Eventually Singapore failed to qualify to the final tournament.

Players

Current squad

The following 23 players were selected for the upcoming 2024 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U-23 Asian Cup Qatar 2024 Qualifiers in September. ''Caps and goals updated as of 6 Sept 2023, after the match against .''

Recent call-ups

The following players have also been called up in the last 12 months to the Singapore squad. * ^INJ Withdrew due to an injury * ^PRE Preliminary squad * ^OA Overage player

Current coaching staff

Tournament records

Olympic Games

* Since 1992,

football at the Summer Olympics Association football has been included in every Summer Olympic Games as a men's competition sport, except 1896 (the inaugural Games) and 1932 (in an attempt to promote the new FIFA World Cup tournament). Women's football was added to the offic ...

changes into Under-23 tournament.

AFC U-23 Championship

Asian Games

* Since 2002,

football at the Asian Games The men's football tournament has been a regular Asian Games sporting event since the 1951 edition, while the women's tournament began in 1990. History The first Asian Games had football tournament. Since the 2002 Asian Games, age limit for ...

changes into Under-23 tournament.

SEA Games

* Since 2001,

Football at the Southeast Asian Games Football has been part of the SEA Games sport since the 1959 edition. The women's football competition was held for the first time in 1985 in Thailand. From the 2001 SEA Games to the 2015 SEA Games and again since 2021 SEA Games, the men's teams ...

changes into Under-23 tournament. :*''Denotes draws include knockout matches decided on

penalty kicks A penalty shot or penalty kick is a play used in several sports whereby a goal is attempted during untimed play. Depending on the sport, when a player commits certain types of penalties, the opposition is awarded a penalty shot or kick attempt. T ...

.'' :**''Red border color indicates tournament was held on home soil.''

:*''Win on

.''

Recent results

2014

2014 Hassanal Bolkiah Trophy The 2014 Hassanal Bolkiah Trophy was the fifth edition of the invitational tournament hosted by Brunei. The tournament take place in Brunei from 9–23 August 2014. Eleven teams from the Asean Football Federation participate in the tournament fo ...

2015

;

2015 Bangabandhu Cup The 2015 Bangabandhu Cup or 2015 Bangabandhu Gold Cup is an international association football tournament organised by the Bangladesh Football Federation as a tribute to Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. This was the 3rd ed ...

; Friendly ;

Football at the 2015 Southeast Asian Games Association football, Football at the 2015 SEA Games was held at National Stadium, Singapore, Singapore National Stadium, Jalan Besar Stadium and Bishan Stadium, Singapore from 29 May to 15 June 2015. Medals were awarded in one event for men's ...

2016

;

2016 AFC U-23 Championship qualification The 2016 AFC U-23 Championship qualification was a men's under-23 association football, football competition which decided the participating teams of the 2016 AFC U-23 Championship. Players born on or after 1 January 1993 were eligible to compete ...

Friendly

2017

Friendly Dubai International Cup

2018 AFC U-23 Championship qualification The 2018 AFC U-23 Championship qualification was an international men's under-23 football competition which decided the participating teams of the 2018 AFC U-23 Championship. A total of 16 teams qualified to play in the final tournament, includin ...

2017 Southeast Asian Games The 2017 Southeast Asian Games (), officially known as the 29th Southeast Asian Games, or the 29th SEA Games, and commonly known as Kuala Lumpur 2017, were a Southeast Asian multi-sport event that took place from 19 to 30 August 2017 in Kuala ...

2018

Friendly 2018 Hassanal Bolkiah Trophy

2019

Friendly

2020 AFC U-23 Championship qualification The 2020 AFC U-23 Championship qualification was an international men's under-23 football competition which decide the participating teams of the 2020 AFC U-23 Championship. A total of 16 teams qualified to play in the final tournament, includin ...

Merlion Cup The Merlion Cup is an invitational association football, football tournament that was held in Singapore annually from 1982–1986, in 1992, 2009 and 2019 and 2023. Participants included full national sides, Olympic sides, Invitational XI's and ...

2019 Southeast Asian Games The 2019 Southeast Asian Games, officially known as the 30th Southeast Asian Games, or the 30th SEA Games, and commonly known as Philippines 2019, were the 30th edition of the SEA Games, Southeast Asian Games, a biennial regional multi-sport ...

2021

Friendly

2022 AFC U-23 Asian Cup qualification The 2022 AFC U-23 Asian Cup qualification was an international men's under-23 association football, football competition which decided the participating teams of the 2022 AFC U-23 Asian Cup. A total of 16 teams qualified to play in the final tour ...

2022

2022 AFF U-23 Youth Championship The 2022 AFF U-23 Championship was the 3rd edition of the AFF U-23 Championship, organised by ASEAN Football Federation (AFF). The tournament was held from 14 to 26 February in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Indonesia were the defending champions, havi ...

Friendly

2021 Southeast Asian Games The 2021 Southeast Asian Games (), officially known as the 31st Southeast Asian Games, 31st SEA Games or SEA Games 31, and also recognized as Viet Nam 2021, were the 31st edition of the Southeast Asian Games, the biennial regional multi-sport e ...

2023

(24-26 March)

2023 Southeast Asian Games The 2023 Southeast Asian Games (, UNGEGN: ''Kar Brâkuŏt Keila Brâchéachéatĕ Asi Aknéy 2023''), also known as the 32nd Southeast Asian Games, or the 32nd SEA Games, and commonly known as Cambodia 2023, were the 32nd edition of the Southe ...

(29 April - 17 May) Friendly

(4-12 September)

2024

2025

Competitive record

AFC U-23 Asian Cup

AFC U-22 Championship

SEA Games

Merlion Cup

Honours

Regional

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 ...

** Bronze medal (3):

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

and

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

** Champions (1):

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

Pestabola Merdeka Merdeka Tournament () is an international friendly football tournament held in Malaysia to commemorate the Independence Day. It is mainly played at Independence Stadium, in Kuala Lumpur. "Merdeka" is the Malay word for independence. As of 202 ...

** Third Place (1):

References

{{National sports teams of Singapore Asian national under-23 association football teams u23

History

Controversial

Players

Current squad

Recent call-ups

Current coaching staff

Tournament records

Olympic Games

AFC U-23 Championship

Asian Games

SEA Games

Recent results

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2021

2022

2023

2024

2025

Competitive record

AFC U-23 Asian Cup

AFC U-22 Championship

SEA Games

Merlion Cup

Honours

Regional

See also

References