Lion City Sailors’ former Dutch Eredivisie forward Lennart Thy hungry for goals and titles

SINGAPORE – Lion City Sailors’ new signing Lennart Thy is seated in the dining area of a hotel in Orchard Road, fielding questions from The Straits Times about his move to the Singapore Premier League (SPL), but the German has one of his own.

Turning to the club’s media officer, his question on whether they have “a good video analysis team” reveals the 32-year-old’s focus on details, as well as his desire to help them complete a domestic sweep.

Quizzed about how he prepares for his matches, the forward said he looks at clips of defenders – sent to him by club staff – and picks out their weaknesses.

This has helped him score over 50 goals – 13 last season – in the Dutch top tier from 2017 to 2024 with PEC Zwolle, VVV-Venlo and Sparta Rotterdam.

Thy, who sports a fashionable short haircut, was announced as the Sailors’ latest import on May 31, joining from Zwolle on a two-year contract for an undisclosed fee. He replaces Richairo Zivkovic, who left the club officially on May 30.

ST understands that the Sailors paid a fee lower than Thy’s market value of €600,000 (S$880,000) on transfermarkt.com. It is less than what they paid for attacking midfielder Bart Ramselaar, who arrived in February for about €1.5 million from Dutch Eredivisie side Utrecht.

Thy, who counts World Cup winner Mario Gotze, Fulham goalkeeper Bernd Leno and Barcelona custodian Marc-Andre ter Stegen as his youth teammates, received offers from Europe and Asia.

But the lure of an adventure in Singapore was tough to resist and it is a journey that his young family – he has a four-year-old son and two-year-old daughter – were excited to embark on.

Thy, who has also played in the German Bundesliga and the Turkish top flight, said: “It’s the whole package... the financial part but also what the country itself has to offer, the fact that you speak English here.

“The football was also important, I know the coach and what he wants to achieve. And I really want to win games and I’m also hungry for more, to play for the championship and also the continental competition.

“I am happy with my career so far but I am not at the end, I am still very hungry.”

Thy is the final foreign signing for the Sailors. He joins reigning SPL Player of the Year Maxime Lestienne, Ramselaar, Australian centre-back Bailey Wright, Portuguese midfielder Rui Pires, Croatian centre-back Toni Datkovic, Spanish left-back Sergio Carmona and versatile Australian Obren Kljajic.

The Sailors will need Thy’s attacking threat as they compete on four fronts this season. The SPL’s only privatised side are looking to wrest the league title from Albirex Niigata and retain their Singapore Cup title, while also competing in the AFC Champions League 2 and the Asean Club Championship. 

He was top scorer in the second-tier Eerste Divisie in 2022–23, recording 23 goals in 36 matches, and played a pivotal role in Zwolle’s immediate promotion back to the top flight.

He continued his impressive form into the recent season, which included a brace in a 2-2 draw at Ajax Amsterdam – to finish joint-seventh in the Eredivisie goalscoring charts.

Sailors coach Aleksandar Rankovic is confident that his new 1.84m forward “will add a different dimension to our attack”.

He added: “Lennart is a quality player who is very lethal in the box, and can finish with both feet. More importantly, he embodies the modern forward, as he links up play well and presses hard from the front.

“His infectious energy and hunger are qualities that will rub off on the team, and I’ve no doubt he will score a lot of goals for us.”

Off the pitch, Thy also made headlines for an a selfless act after making a blood donation to facilitate a stem cell transplant for a leukaemia patient, missing a game for VVV-Venlo against PSV Eindhoven in the process. His act won him the 2018 FIFA Fair Play Award and prompted a surge in donors stepping forward in the Netherlands.

And just as he did in Holland, Thy wants to make a mark in Singapore.

Thy is eyeing the league’s Golden Boot, despite being six behind the current top scorer, Balestier Khalsa’s Kodai Tanaka.

He said: “I hope we (Sailors fans and I) can celebrate a lot of goals and victories together. I want to win the title and leave an impression and maybe even make football here bigger than what it currently is.

“I can do that by playing well and winning games for Sailors in the Champions League.”