Contributed by Eric Ong

Saturday, November 28, 2009 – Singapore U-23 coach T Pathmanathan will take Singapore’s youngest ever football squad to the biennial South-East Asian Games when they depart for Vientiane, Laos on Monday 30 November.

With an average age of 19.8 years, the squad is Singapore football’s youngest representatives at the SEA Games since the football competition became an U-23 event in 2001.

The football competition of the 25th SEA Games kicks off on 2 December with the Group A fixtures.

Singapore, in Group B, will open our campaign against near neighbours Indonesia on 5 December.

They then take on 2007 silver medallists Myanmar on 7 December with the final fixture against hosts Laos on 10 December.

The top two teams from each group qualifies for the semi-finals.

The 20-strong squad features 11 teenagers who will still be eligible for the next two editions of the SEA Games in 2011 and 2013 where the football competition is restricted to U-23 level, similar to the Asian Games and Olympic Games.

Included in the squad is promising attacker Shahfiq Ghani from the National Football Academy U-17 team, the youngest player in the squad.

Only five of the 20 players – Jasper Chan, Isa Halim, Shaiful Esah, Hariss Harun and Shahdan Sulaiman – were from the 2007 squad that came back from Korat, Thailand with the bronze medal.

Pathmanathan said: “We have been giving these young boys lots of opportunities to play in the S.League to gain experience to prepare for the SEA Games. It is the first time for most of them with only five of having prior experience at the SEA Games.

“The opponents in the S.League are fitter, stronger, more physical and of a much higher standard than what they will face in the SEA Games and we wanted the boys to experience that.

“With this group of boys, we are not just looking at this SEA Games but at the next couple of Games as well as most of them will still be eligible.

“The boys have grown in confidence over the past 10 months and they are eager to show that they can compete in the international arena. The SEA Games is never easy as every team will want to win it and the boys know they will have to raise their game to compete. The team spirit in the team is very high and the boys are all eagerly looking forward to the Games and want to do Singapore proud.”

Singapore U-23 Football (SEA Games Squad)