FAS partners Borussia Dortmund, LaLiga for Unleash The Roar campaign

The Football Association of Singapore (FAS) and Sport Singapore (SportSG) have announced a strategic partnership with German giants Borussia Dortmund and Spain’s LaLiga as part of the Unleash the Roar! (UTR) project. 

The collaboration will see Dortmund and LaLiga provide expertise in areas of youth development, coach development, and sports science, as well as help secure overseas stints for the brightest Singaporean talents. 

The partnership will bolster local coaches as it will give them the opportunity to hone their skills through training overseas, including trips to Germany to witness the coaching at the Bundesliga club first-hand. It will also see top foreign coaches head the newly-launched School Football Academies (SFAs). 

Specifically, LaLiga coaches will help helm key positions alongside local coaches in 10 newly-launched SFAs while Bundesliga giants Dortmund will lend their expertise to develop a coach development programme with UTR!. 

The SFA programme will encompass on-field training, complemented with sports science support and will cover physical, technical, mental, and tactical skills training similar to the national elite system and overseas professional leagues. All youth student-athletes in the SFAs will be supported to perform both academically and in football. 

Each SFA will feature a team of full-time SFA coaches, comprising both LaLiga and local coaches who will work under the leadership of the FAS Technical Director and the ActiveSG Football Academy (AFA) Principal. The team of coaches will be led by a Head Coach who will minimally possess an ‘A’ licence, with the relevant youth development experience. 

There will also be specialist coaches in the areas of goalkeeping, strength and conditioning, and performance analysts who will be engaged to provide each student-athlete the best possible training. 

The SFA initiative will run as a pilot project from 2022. 

The secondary schools selected for the project include Montfort, Sengkang, Singapore Sports School, Anglo-Chinese (Barker), Queensway, Serangoon Garden, Meridian, St Patrick’s, Assumption English, and Jurongville.