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. 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. 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 would see Young Lions play in the Malaysian Super League and Malaysia Cup 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.[2] Ultimately, a new team was created, the LionsXII, 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 to allow their players to gain more exposure and match experience by playing against older and more established players.[3]
Foreign players
In 2023, Young Lions signed the Japanese duo Jun Kobayashi and Kan Kobayashi from Albirex Niigata (S) becoming the first foreign players since French Benjamin Bertrand from Tours 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 fixtures against Albirex Niigata (S) where Kaisei Ogawa became the second players in the club history to score four goals in one match since Zikos Chua against Tanjong Pagar United on 7 August 2022. After a reshuffle in the Football Association of Singapore seeing Forrest Li as the FAS new president in 2025, Young Lions sees a major overhaul in the club 2025–26 season where they signed a new partnership with Denmark manufacturing company Select ending a deal with Nike after 17 years. The club also sees themselves getting a main sponsor on the front of their jersey with Chinese state-owned automobile company, Dongfeng. Young Lions also went on to signed a few youngsters from Brazil with the likes of Abner Vinicius, Joilson, Lucas Agueiro and Sérgio Mendonça while they loan a few under-21 foreign players from Lion City Sailors with the likes of Enrico Walmrath, Harry Spence and Benjamin Žerak.
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 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.
Kit suppliers and naming history
Young Lions kit was manufactured by local brand Tiger who than collaborate with Italian sportswear Diadora. The club was than sponsor by Japanese brand Maxell. In 2008, Young Lions alongside the Singapore national team kit was than manufactured by Nike. From 2011, Young Lions was sponsored by Courts where the club began to change it name to Courts Young Lions until 2015 where they was than sponsored by Garena thus changing the name to Garena Young Lions until 2017.
In August 2025, Young Lions signed a deal with Danish sportswear Select ending a 17 years contract with Nike. The club also partners with Chinese state-owned automobile company, Dongfeng as the club main sponsor.
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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.
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