News Singapore Premier League • March 11, 2021
Phillippe Aw to take charge of Young Lions for 2021 SPL season
11 MARCH 2021 – There will be a new face in the Young Lions dugout for the 2021 AIA Singapore Premier League (SPL) season as Phillipe Aw takes charge of the team.
The 44-year-old, who is the current head coach of the Under-15 Men’s National Team, will helm the side with last year’s head coach, Nazri Nasir, recuperating from a medical procedure late last year.
Aw, who stepped in to help with pre-season preparations, said in a statement: “Youth development has been a big part of my coaching journey and I am happy to help out at the Young Lions, which is also about developing players. I am very clear about what I want to do here, which is to improve each and every one of them. They are at a developmental stage given some of them are as young as 16 years; if I can help to improve each of them by the end of the season, for me that’s my objective met from day one.”
Nazri remains a “key member” of the Young Lions’ coaching staff and will contribute in an “advisory role”, while also monitoring players during SPL matches for the U22 Men’s National Team in his role as head coach. The statement added that Aw will assist Nazri with the U22s during this year’s international windows, as well as at the 2022 AFC U23 Asian Cup Qualifiers in late October and the SEA Games in November.
A former player who played for Balestier Khalsa (1998) and Home United (1999 to 2002), Aw moved into coaching after retirement in 2006 and rose through the ranks from helming Home’s Prime League side to their first team in 2014. He moved on after three seasons to take charge of Hougang United, spending two years there before joining the Football Association of Singapore (FAS).
Aw will work with familiar faces in the Young Lions set-up, having coached the likes of Khairin Nadim, Amir Syafiz and Raoul Suhaimi at U15 level. He has also spent time with Alif Iskandar and Daniel Goh while the pair were at Hougang.
The Young Lions finished seventh out of eight teams last season and begin their 2021 campaign against Balestier Khalsa at home this Sunday.
