| Clubname: | Young Lions |
| Upright: | 0.7 |
| Fullname: | Young Lions Football Club |
| Nickname: | Young Lions |
| Ground: | Jalan Besar Stadium |
| Capacity: | 10,000 |
| Owner: | Football Association of Singapore |
| Mgrtitle: | Head coach |
| Manager: | Nazri Nasir |
| League: | Singapore Premier League |
| Season: | 2023 |
| Position: | Singapore Premier League, 9th of 9 |
| Current: | 2024–25 Young Lions F.C. season |
| Pattern B1: | _nike_white |
| Pattern Sh1: | _whitenike |
| Pattern So1: | _nike_white |
| Leftarm1: | FF0000 |
| Body1: | FF0000 |
| Rightarm1: | FF0000 |
| Shorts1: | FF0000 |
| Socks1: | FF0000 |
| Pattern B2: | _nike_white |
| Pattern Sh2: | _whitenike |
| Pattern So2: | _nike_white |
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| Short Name: | YGL |
Young Lions Football Club, commonly known as Young Lions, is a Singaporean developmental football club that based in Kallang, Singapore, which competes in the Singapore Premier League. The team is under the direct control of the Football Association of Singapore. 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.
Young Lions plays their league matches at the Jalan Besar Stadium. Their best league finish was third, which they achieved in 2004 and 2006.
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.
In 2023, Young Lions signed both Japanese duo Jun Kobayashi and Kan Kobayashi from Albirex Niigata (S) who became the foreign players playing for the club for the first time since signing France national, Benjamin Bertrand from Ligue 2 club, Tours in 2016. In preparation for the upcoming 2024–25 Singapore Premier League season, Young Lions signed an additional two more Japanese players, Kaisei Ogawa and Itsuki Enomoto and also signing Australian national Rashid Hayek from Western United making it the first time the club has five foreigners registered in the squad.
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.[1]
Ultimately though, a new team was created for the Malaysia league: the LionsXII, while Young Lions remained in the S.League.
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.[2]
See main article: Jalan Besar 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 of 6,000. 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 8,000.
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.
| 2011–2015 |  Courts | Courts Young Lions | [3] | |
| 2016–2017 | Garena | Garena Young Lions | [4] |
| Position | Name | |
|---|---|---|
| Team Manager | Sakthi Vel Ganesan | |
| Head coach | Nazri Nasir | |
| Assistant coach | Fadzuhasny Juraimi  Kosei Nakamura Afiq Yahya | |
| Goalkeeper coach | Ahmadulhaq Che Omar | |
| Fitness coach | Donald Wan | |
| Physiotherapist | Alex Poon | |
| Sports Trainer | Ryan Wang Jasmori Rasip | |
| Equipment Officer | Omar Mohamed |
| Season | League | Pos. | Pld | W | D | L | GS | GA | Pts | Singapore Cup | League Cup |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | S.League | 12th | 33 | 6 | 1–5 | 21 | 33 | 77 | 25 | Quarter-finals | |
| 2004 | 3rd | 27 | 14 | 5 | 8 | 74 | 52 | 47 | Quarter-finals | ||
| 2005 | 6th | 27 | 12 | 6 | 9 | 44 | 37 | 42 | Quarter-finals | ||
| 2006 | 3rd | 30 | 15 | 7 | 8 | 67 | 43 | 52 | Quarter-finals | ||
| 2007 | 5th | 33 | 13 | 8 | 12 | 45 | 54 | 47 | Preliminary | Withdrew | |
| 2008 | 9th | 33 | 7 | 10 | 16 | 30 | 46 | 31 | Semi-finals | Semi-finals | |
| 2009 | 8th | 30 | 9 | 7 | 14 | 33 | 48 | 34 | Preliminary | Group stage | |
| 2010 | 9th | 33 | 9 | 12 | 12 | 37 | 45 | 34 | Semi-finals | Preliminary | |
| 2011 | 9th | 33 | 7 | 6 | 20 | 33 | 54 | 27 | Withdrew | Withdrew | |
| 2012 | 10th | 24 | 6 | 5 | 13 | 25 | 37 | 23 | Withdrew | Group stage | |
| 2013 | 12th | 27 | 5 | 3 | 19 | 20 | 52 | 18 | Preliminary | Group stage | |
| 2014 | 10th | 27 | 7 | 5 | 15 | 38 | 54 | 26 | Did not participate | Did not participate | |
| 2015 | 9th | 27 | 7 | 6 | 14 | 30 | 43 | 27 | Did not participate | Did not participate | |
| 2016 | 9th | 24 | 2 | 3 | 19 | 23 | 70 | 9 | Preliminary | Did not participate | |
| 2017 | 9th | 24 | 1 | 3 | 20 | 10 | 62 | 6 | Did not participate | Did not participate | |
| 2018 | Singapore Premier League | 7th | 24 | 5 | 6 | 13 | 25 | 46 | 21 | Did not participate | |
| 2019 | 8th | 24 | 6 | 4 | 14 | 21 | 38 | 22 | Did not participate | ||
| 2020 | 7th | 14 | 3 | 0 | 11 | 12 | 38 | 9 | Not Held | ||
| 2021 | 7th | 21 | 4 | 4 | 13 | 26 | 50 | 16 | Not Held | ||
| 2022 | 8th | 28 | 2 | 2 | 24 | 34 | 103 | 8 | Group Stage | ||
| 2023 | 9th | 24 | 1 | 2 | 21 | 24 | 76 | 5 | Group Stage |
Craig Foster (1991)
Li Jisheng (2006) Che Hao (2006) Guan Hongyu (2006) Yan Minghao (2006) Yang Mu (2009)
Kim Seong-kyu (2010) Seo Su-jong (2010) Jun Kobayashi (2023) Kan Kobayashi (2023)
Sirina Camara (2012) Jonathan Toto (2012–2013) Benjamin Bertrand (2016)
Moudourou Moise (2006–2008)
Kazeem Babatunde (2003–2004) Greg Nwokolo (2005) Obadin Aikhena (2008–2009)
Jordan Webb (2014–2016) Sherif El-Masri (2012–2015)As of 8 July 2024.
| 1 | Afiq Yunos | 2008–2013 | 114 | |
| 2 | Syahrul Sazali | 2016–20192021–2022 | 101 | |
| Shahril Ishak | 2003–2006 | |||
| 3 | Syazwan Buhari | 2010–2015 | 87 | |
| Amirul Adli | 2011–2017 | |||
| Hariss Harun | 2007–2011 | |||
| Sherif El-Masri | 2012–2015 | |||
| 7 | Faritz Abdul Hameed | 2009–2012 | 83 | |
| 8 | Hami Syahin | 2015–20182020–2021 | 82 | |
| 9 | Khairul Amri | 2004–2008,2016 | 79 |
| 1 | Khairul Amri | 79 | 49 | |
| 2 | Agu Casmir | 34 | 31 | |
| 3 | Shahril Ishak | 101 | 20 | |
| 4 | Sherif El-Masri | 87 | 18 | |
| Qiu Li | 27 | |||
| 6 | Khairul Nizam | 57 | 15 | |
| 7 | 39 | 14 | ||
| Shi Jiayi | 66 | |||
| 9 | Ilhan Fandi | 33 | 13 | |
| 10 | Sahil Suhaimi | 38 | 12 |
| Albirex Niigata (S) | 3–2 | 16 June 2024 | 2024–25 Singapore Premier League | |
| Balestier Khalsa | 4–2 | 14 August 2021 | 2021 Singapore Premier League | |
| DPMM | 3–1 | 27 July 2024 | 2024–25 Singapore Premier League | |
| Geylang International | 4–2 | 26 November 2023 | 2023 Singapore Cup | |
| Hougang United | 2–1 | 18 March 2023 | 2023 Singapore Premier League | |
| Lion City Sailors (As Home United) | 0–3 | 18 September 2019 | 2019 Singapore Premier League | |
| Tanjong Pagar United | 3–2 | 22 June 2024 | 2024–25 Singapore Premier League | |
| Tampines Rovers | 2–1 | 1 August 2018 | 2018 Singapore Premier League | |
| Warriors | 0–1 | 8 April 2018 | 2018 Singapore Premier League |
On 7 September 2010, The S.League fixture between both Young Lions and Beijing Guoan Talent was abandoned in the 89th minute when a massive brawl erupted into violence. The referee and his assistants lost control. Its all started in the final 10 minutes of the game when the first fight broke out in the 84th minute. The match then continued with Afiq Yunos equalising for the Young Lions in the 88th minute. However, a tackle by Beijing's Yu Tianzhu on Young Lions, Nazrul Nazari in the middle of the field saw the match degenerate into a brawl involving both teams, including bench players. As seen in the YouTube video, several Beijing players went in with flying kicks on Gabriel Quak which he suffered an arm injury while Faritz Hameed was seen receiving a blow to the head as he was on the ground. Both Young Lions players were evacuated to the hospital. Beijing's goalkeeper, Su Boyang was also seen attempting to punch Khairul Nizam. Young Lions head coach, Eugene Loo stepped in to help cool down the tension but was in turn kicked in the back as well and fell over. To make matter worst, several fans were also spotted jumping into the field to fight. Even a medical personnel lost his cool and had to be held back. He was seen escorted away from the pitch while challenging the Beijing players to a fight.
Both clubs have been docked five points and fined $5,000 each. The FAS Disciplinary Committee has also concluded that the match will not be replayed and the result will stand.10 players from Beijing and 6 players from Young Lions have been charged for gross misconduct which brought the game into disrepute. Both teams have sinced apologised for the fight.