Football: Young Lions confirm ex-Albirex duo Kan and Jun Kobayashi for 2023 SPL

SINGAPORE - Change is afoot in the Singapore Premier League (SPL) in 2023, with the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) announcing a slew of developments including the return of Brunei DPMM and the introduction of the video assistant referee.

The Young Lions will also see a refreshed squad this season with the addition of foreign players for the first time since 2016. Japanese defender Jun Kobayashi and midfielder Kan Kobayashi – who are both 23 years old and are unrelated – will join Philippe Aw’s side from SPL champions Albirex Niigata for their campaign.

This was previously reported in The Straits Times on Jan 14, with the FAS confirming on Saturday that they have official signed the duo.

Both players arrived in Singapore on Jan 26 and will take part in their first training session with the team on Monday, said the FAS in a press statement. The move comes after the club were allowed to register up to three foreign or overaged Singaporean players from this season. Since 2017, Young Lions, who are managed by the FAS, have exclusively featured local under-23 players.

FAS technical director Michael Browne said the Japanese pair will increase the Young Lions’ competitivity. He added: “With the regulation change, Philippe Aw (head coach) and I discussed and agreed that we should identify foreign players who play down the spine of the team – as is the case with most clubs who bring in overseas players.

“Jun and Kan Kobayashi were among the players observed last season and they were certainly influential for Albirex. Furthermore, their statistical data compared favourably with the vast majority of players in the SPL in their respective positions,” he added.

Jun and Kan starting 27 and 25 out of a possible 28 matches for Albirex respectively. According to sports performance analysis provider InStat, Jun won 72 per cent of his challenges and 77 per cent of his aerial duels – the best among all centre-backs in the league in 2022.

Kan, who had five goals and six assists in 2022, also recorded a passing accuracy of 83 per cent and made 48 key passes throughout the season; ranking him third among SPL centre-midfielders.

Aw said: “Albirex players have always been known for their high level of professionalism and tenacious work ethic and we want them to bring those traits to the team.

“Our young players need good examples to emulate and it will aid their development by training and playing alongside Jun and Kan. I am pleased that their paperwork has been sorted and I look forward to working with them throughout the season.”

Browne added: “We expect the two players to be leaders in terms of their attitude and approach through the way they conduct themselves on and off the pitch. The players will benefit by observing, learning and eventually adopting these good habits.”

The Young Lions have finished with fewer than 10 points in four of the last seven seasons. In 2022, they were bottom of the eight-team league, racking up just eight points from 28 games while shipping 103 goals.

The latest move to include foreigners in the Young Lions comes after the FAS said it would speed up the process of getting foreign-born talent to play for the Lions via the Foreign Talent Scheme (FTS), following Singapore’s Asean Football Federation Championship exit.

The Young Lions had previously been used as an incubator for foreign players who were viewed as potential FTS candidates, giving them the opportunity to assimilate into the local league while fulfilling Fifa’s residency requirements to play for an adopted country at senior level.