Youth Development Programmes
FAS places a lot of focus on football development and is currently one of the very few football associations in Asia to have a comprehensive national age group programmes with U-15, U-16, U-17, U-18 and U-23 teams (known as Young Lions, who compete in the country's professional S.League).
All S.League clubs have also fully implemented their own Centre of Excellence (COE) programs for the Under-14s, adding on to the existing U-16s and U-18s program. An expansion of FAS’ Junior Centres of Excellence (JCOE) for our U-8, U-10 and U-12 age-groups early this year saw our centres grow from 3 to the current 10 and the start of an Under-6 age-group at one of our centres in June 2012.
In the 2012 edition of the Canon Lion City Cup, a few players from Singapore U-16 squad were singled out for praise by coaches of top academy teams from around the world, including CR Vasco da Gama, AFC Ajax Amsterdam, FC Porto and Manchester City, who also competed in the same youth tournament.
Adam Swandi of the U-16 squad was mentioned as a technical player who "plays like a Brazilian", and have the "potential to play in bigger clubs in Europe". The young player is currently on a second training stint with J-League club Albirex Niigata.
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