The Thai club side from BG Pathum United which won the Lion City Cup after beating the Singapore national U15 is actually their third tier U15 side from a province in Chiangmai, former national goalkeeper Yakob Hashim has revealed.
Yakob, a coach with a local football academy who also had a stint in the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) council after the 2017 elections for office bearers, also posted photos of the Thai team’s training conditions prior to the competition.
One of the photos showed a few of the Thai players at the training ground at the back of the pick-up truck.
Other photos showed the condition of the pitch.
The Thai side was coached by another Singapore former international Kadir Yahaya, who is now the Head of Youth Football at BG Pathum.
In this Facebook post, Yakob congratulated Kadir for the team’s feat in lifting the Lion City Cup.
“BG Pathum’s third team from one of their satellite province teams in Chiangmai is (the) Lion City Cup Champion 2023,” he said.
He also added that Kadir personally handled the team and stayed in the province prior to the competition.
“He stayed in the province” and “was coaching the team for the past two weeks before the tournament.
“He was bitten by mosquitoes and (was) down with fever yet the show must go on.”
Yakob, a close pal of Kadir along with another former International Abdullah Noor, added that BG Pathum’s “number 1 and 2 teams got other tournaments.”
Yakob also pointed to the differences in the facilities which the Lion City Cup-winning side trained on ahead of their trip to Singapore.
“They are humble even in winning, being provoked and denied a clear penalty by the referee but still showed sportsmanship.”
See video.
Yakob added that Singapore still had a long way to go and instead of pitting the national youth sides against regional club sides, “we should compete to play with ASEAN National age group teams to test how much we have improved to prepare for ASEAN Football Federation and Asian Football Confederation tournaments.”
“For now be humble in losing and come back stronger,” he added.
See Yakob’s post below.
MAIN PHOTO: YAKOB HASHIM