New Young Lions coach Firdaus Kassim wants his team to regain connection with the fans

On June 25, Firdaus Kassim was announced as head coach of the Young Lions for the 2025 SEA Games, which will be held in Thailand from Dec 9 to 20. ST PHOTO: SHINTARO TAY

Deepanraj Ganesan

UPDATED Jun 25, 2025, 11:01 AM

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SINGAPORE – When he was just five, Firdaus Kassim was inspired by the fervour and adulation that the Lions garnered during the 1993 SEA Games on home soil.

While the Lions bowed out after a semi-final penalty shoot-out defeat by Myanmar at the National Stadium and settled for a bronze medal, their campaign was still a memorable one. It started with a 7-0 hammering of the Philippines, and players such as Fandi Ahmad and V. Sundramoorthy evoked strong support from fans.

The football competition at the biennial Games has since become an Under-22 affair, and local football has also slipped into the doldrums. Repeated SEA Games disappointments, including a 7-0 thumping by Malaysia in 2023, have drained public confidence in the team.

Now 37, Firdaus wants to revive the passion in a new generation of fans. On June 25, he was announced as head coach of the Young Lions for the 2025 SEA Games, which will be held in Thailand from Dec 9 to 20.

In a media statement announcing various appointments, FAS said Lion City Sailors coaches Yeong Sheau Shyan and Ashraf Ariffin will lead the U-16 girls’ and boys’ teams respectively at the July 8-13 Lion City Cup, while Firdaus will be supported by team manager Hafiz Sujad, 34, a former Singapore international.

Referencing the 1993 team, Firdaus said: “If you speak to the older fans, it’s not about how attractive the team played, but it’s more of the fighting spirit where they were prepared to give their all and I feel that this is also the demand that we have to put to the (current) players. Of course, I’m not trying to exaggerate things and say that we have to go to war....but this is the mentality we must have.

“We have to give our all, put our body where it’s going to hurt. You have to sweat, you have to bleed if you need to. This is the job for me, and also the coaches as well, to demand this from the players every day.”

To this end, Firdaus – who has signed a two-year contract as he also oversees the team in the Singapore Premier League (SPL) – said that standards will be set in training and over time, the fighting spirit will be apparent in matches.

It has been 12 years since Singapore last reached the semi-finals of the biennial Games. While he did not want to spell out targets for the upcoming edition, he wants the team to be “connected to the fans again” by putting “heart and soul into every game”.

“On top of that, we want to have an attractive playing style, something that the fans could also relate to,” added Firdaus, whose coaching career included stints in Thailand as an assistant coach with Muangthong United and Chainat Hornbill.

He was also an assistant coach with the Laos national team and an analyst with the Singapore national team before joining Hougang as an assistant coach in 2020 and becoming their interim head coach in 2023.

But after delivering just four points from eight matches that season, he was redeployed to take charge of Hougang’s U-17 side.

He joined the Lion City Sailors at the start of 2024 as U-15 head coach and development coordinator for the U-13 to U-18 teams. Later that year, he was promoted as the club’s U-21 head coach.

Under his tutelage, the young Sailors dominated the SPL U-21 competition, cruising to the title with an impressive record of 19 wins and three draws from 24 matches, while boasting the league’s most formidable attack with 87 goals. Their nearest challengers, Tanjong Pagar United, finished 15 points adrift.

But it will be a tough task to replicate that at the SEA Games, with his appointment coming less than six months to the tournament’s kick-off.

While he admits that this is a role that comes with a lot of scrutiny, he is willing to embrace the hot seat.

Firdaus said: “I look at it positively, because the more scrutiny you have, it means that there’s more interest in football. Every coach aspires to be in the best environment they can be in and I really think despite the limitations, I really want to influence the change.”

He will be casting the net wide to look for eligible players for the SEA Games.

To ensure that the Young Lions stay competitive in the SPL, they will remain to be boosted by foreigners. ST understands that these imports will likely be under the age of 23, with the prospect of being naturalised for the national team in future.

While the Young Lions will sit out the men’s Asean U-23 Championship in July, they will participate in the U-23 Asian Cup qualifiers from Sept 1 to 9, with at least two overseas training camps scheduled in the coming months.

Although the clock is ticking ahead of the Games, Firdaus emphasised that this is “not just a six-month project”, noting that real change will not happen instantly.

Firdaus said: “I know this is a very big job, big task , given how we’ve been performing in the past . But the most important thing is that I feel the confidence from the management. (I see) the vision from the current leadership, to see beyond what’s happening in the next six months.

“In the next two years, I’m really confident that myself and the other coaching staff, we are able to try to push Singapore football to a better level.”

Deepanraj Ganesan is a sports journalist at The Straits Times focusing on football, athletics, combat sports and policy-related news.

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