Gavin Lee (football coach)

Last updated

Gavin Lee
Personal information
Full name Gavin Joshua Lee Tse Peng
Date of birth (1990-09-08) 8 September 1990 (age 34)
Place of birth Singapore
Team information
Current team
Singapore (Interim Head Coach)
Senior career*
YearsTeamApps(Gls)
2012–2014 SCC 0 (0)
Managerial career
2014–2015 Warriors (assistant)
2017–2018 Tampines Rovers (assistant)
2019–2025 Tampines Rovers
2024–2025 Singapore (assistant)
2025– Singapore (interim)
* Club domestic league appearances and goals

Gavin Joshua Lee Tse Peng (born 8 September 1990) is a Singaporean professional football coach who is currently the interim head coach of the Singapore national team. [1]

Contents

Early life

Lee played for the Tampines under-8s, as well as the under-10s, teams that his father coached at the time.[ citation needed ] Lee was enrolled in the National Football Academy and also played for the national under-14 team. [2]

After training alongside Gabriel Quak, Hariss Harun and Izwan Mahbud, Lee knew he would not be able to keep up. He shared that “It was also at that point that I realised I couldn't cope academically, so I decided to choose a different path” and turned to coaching because his father had been a coach since he was young.[ citation needed ]

Education

Lee studied at Victoria School and Victoria Junior College. [3] He later studied in Nanyang Technological University and had a degree in Sports Science and Management. [2]

As a young football coach, Gavin admitted that a consequence of his daily routines is that he “does not have as many friends as others”. When Gavin Lee was in university, he was often labelled as an "old man" as he did not join his peers for suppers and parties and chose to rest early to work the following day.[ citation needed ]

Managerial career

Since he was 17, Lee has been a football coach. He worked his way up from the grassroots, coaching children as young as five at JSSL.

Lee joined the JSSL Singapore when he was 18 as a "cone guy" before becoming the general manager in 2016. [2]

In June 2011, Lee was issued an AFC 'C' Coaching License at the age of 21. He then went on to get the AFC 'B' Coaching License in July 2015 before finally getting to the highest achieving license, AFC 'A' Coaching License in January 2020.

Warriors

In 2014, Gavin joined Warriors as their match analyst in their title winning season in 2014 where he got promoted to the assistant coach under Alex Weaver in 2015. Lee left Warriors in October 2015. [2]

Tampines Rovers

In December 2017, Lee joined Tampines Rovers as an assistant coach under head coach Jürgen Raab. [2] In 2019, after head coach Raab was relieved of his duties at Tampines Rovers on 9 October 2018, [4] Lee was appointed as head coach despite lacking the required Asian Football Confederation 'A' License to become the head coach. [2] [5] The appointment was based on his past performance as Warriors' assistant coach and impressed Tampines Rovers' staff and players with his knowledge. [2] He was then the youngest head coach in the history of the Singapore Premier League. [6]

Lee led the club to second place in the Singapore Premier League (SPL) and won the 2019 Singapore Cup in his first season in charge. [1] Tampines Rovers placed second in the SPL again in his second year at the head of the team. [7]

During the 2021 season, Lee led the team to their first ever AFC Champions League debut in Tashkent, Uzbekistan which they are drawn in Group H with 2020 K League 1 champions and 2020 Korean FA Cup winners, Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors, 2020 J1 League runners-up, Gamba Osaka and Thailand Chiangrai United. On 16 June, Lee has extended his contract until 2024.

On 17 June 2025, Lee left Tampines Rovers after eight years in charge of the club. [8]

Singapore

On 7 March 2024, Lee was invited to be part of the backroom staff of the Singapore national team by newly appointed Japanese head coach Tsutomu Ogura for the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification match against China. [9] On 11 June 2024, Gavin was appointed in charge of the national team against Thailand after Ogura tested positive for COVID-19 and was isolated from the team. [10]

On 24 June 2025, Ogura stepped down as the national team head coach, due to personal reasons. FAS decided to appoint Lee as the interim coach. [11]

Honours

As manager

References

  1. 1 2 "Tampines Rovers has kept faith in head coach Gavin Lee" . Retrieved 24 July 2020.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Former NTU student breaks barriers in local football league". Archived from the original on 4 June 2020. Retrieved 24 July 2020.
  3. "Meet Gavin Lee, Singapore's Brightest Coaching Prospect – Part 1: The Journey to Topflight Football".
  4. "Tampines Rovers relieve Jurgen Raab of his duties | Goal.com". Archived from the original on 15 October 2018. Retrieved 15 October 2018.
  5. "Tampines first-team coach Lee earns respect despite being younger than some players". Archived from the original on 4 June 2020. Retrieved 24 July 2020.
  6. Lee, David (28 August 2025). "Interim S'pore national coach Gavin Lee hopes Lions can make an impact with him at the helm". The Straits Times . ISSN   0585-3923 . Retrieved 3 September 2025.
  7. Kwek, Kimberly (5 December 2020). "Football: Tampines draw 1-1 with Geylang International to finish second in SPL". The Straits Times . ISSN   0585-3923 . Retrieved 5 September 2025.
  8. Ganesan, Deepanraj (17 June 2025). "Singapore Premier League's youngest coach Gavin Lee leaves Tampines Rovers". The Straits Times . ISSN   0585-3923 . Retrieved 17 June 2025.
  9. "Tsutomu Ogura strengthens backroom staff with key coach appointments" . Retrieved 27 March 2024.
  10. Hamzah, Firdaus (10 June 2024). "Singapore head coach Ogura down with COVID-19; assistant Gavin Lee to take charge for Thailand match". CNA. Retrieved 20 June 2025.
  11. "FAS announces the departure of Men's National Team Head Coach Tsutomu Ogura". Football Association of Singapore. 24 June 2025.