Player Type: FORWARDS
Nationality: Singaporean
DOB/Age: 26 September 2006 (17)
Previous Club: Mattar Sailors
A natural forward, Josephine is one of seven players who have made the step up from Mattar Sailors in the Women’s National League last year to the Lion City Sailors Women’s Premier League (WPL) team.
Now gleaning much from training alongside the more experienced women in the Sailors’ WPL squad, Jo is buoyed to achieve more with the reigning WPL champions.
With her infectious energy, Jo is always keen to help out her teammates and lift the moods in the dressing room, and like her idol Cristiano Ronaldo, Jo has a fierce strike.
Nationality: Curaçaoan
DOB/Age: 5 September 1996 (28)
Previous Clubs: FC Groningen (2012-2014), Ajax Amsterdam (2014-2017), Willem II (2015 – loan), FC Utrecht (2016-2017 – loan), K.V. Oostende (2017-2019), Changchun Yatai (2019-2021), Sheffield United (2020 – loan), Guangzhou R&F (2020 – loan), Red Star Belgrade (2021-2022), FC Emmen (2022-2023)
Richairo primarily plays as a centre-forward. Born in the Netherlands, he represented them at youth level from Under-18 to Under-21 before switching to represent Curaçao at senior level.
Richi has featured for the likes of Ajax Amsterdam, Red Star Belgrade and Sheffield United. Having played in top European leagues such as the Eredivisie and the English Premier League, he is widely known for his poacher instincts and composure in front of goal.
He was part of the Red Star Belgrade side that won the Serbian league and cup double in the 2021/2022 season. He had previously featured in the UEFA Champions League with Ajax and also in the UEFA Europa League with both Ajax and Red Star.
Nationality: Singaporean
DOB/Age: 16 June 2001 (23)
Previous Clubs: Young Lions (2019-2022)
Rasaq had a spectacular first season with the Sailors, scoring a career-high 10 goals to finish as the Singapore Premier League’s joint-top local scorer along with teammate Shawal Anuar in 2023.
Having shown potential from a young age, representing Singapore at various youth levels and scoring in his first year as a full-fledged professional in 2019, his career was curtailed slightly due to National Service but he has since returned strongly.
Rasaq sparkled towards the end of 2022, scoring five goals across two competitions for the Young Lions before moving to the Sailors the following year.
With a rising reputation as one of the best young strikers in the country, he is determined to kick on in this coming campaign as he looks to achieve his dream of representing the senior Singapore national team.
Nationality: Singaporean
DOB/Age: 29 April 1991 (33)
Previous Clubs: Geylang International (2014-2019), Hougang United (2020-2022)
A rare talent who was nurtured in and plucked from Singapore’s amateur leagues, Shawal’s stock has risen in recent years – and sharply so.
Shawal is undoubtedly one of Singapore’s top forwards at the moment. In 2022 he combined flair with trickery and a keen eye for goal, scoring a career-high 11 Singapore Premier League goals to inspire Hougang United to their first-ever trophy last season – the Singapore Cup.
That earned him the big move to the Sailors in 2023 and he played a crucial part in the Sailors’ first-ever Singapore Cup triumph, scoring six times – including a match-clinching strike in the final against his former employers to help the club finish the year with silverware.
Nationality: Japanese
DOB/Age: 6 April 2005 (18)
Previous Clubs: AKS Shanghai, ANZA Singapore
The baby of the Sailors Women’s squad, Miray only turns 18 this year, but has already shown the potential to become a top talent in the local football scene.
The Japanese teenager was part of the Sailors’ team that won the inaugural FAS Women’s Panna Challenge in 2020 and finished second top-scorer with seven Pannas.
The hardworking forward grew from strength to strength as the 2022 WPL season wore on and was the star performer in the post-season SingaCup’s Women Football Championship where she scored three goals against top regional sides like Persib Bandung and Phranakorn FC.
A skilfull forward who is also adept on the wings, Miray actually only began playing football because her mum signed her up for summer camp when she was in first grade, fearing that Miray would become a couch potato.
Nationality: Singaporean
DOB/Age: 29 July 2002 (21)
Previous Clubs: Warriors FC, Tanjong Pagar United
When she first gave football a shot as a nine-year-old, the sport gave her a sense of achievement and purpose, gifts Dorcas grabbed with both hands. And she has not looked back.
Dorcas saw little success with Chinese dance, ballet and badminton, before jumping into football, and within two weeks, she became the only lower primary student representing her school in national competitions.
Three years later as a 12-year-old Dorcas was called up to the National Under-14 side, in what was the start of her journey into the senior Lioness side.
The 20-year-old forward models her game after Manchester United legend Wayne Rooney – bringing hunger and determination to the pitch, assets that drove the Sailors to success in their debut WPL season in 2022 as she ended the season as the league’s third-highest scorer with seven goals and was amongst the nominees for the WPL Young Player of the Year award.
She is now on the comeback trail after suffering an unfortunate anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury at the end of 2022.
Nationality: Belgian
DOB/Age: 17 June 1992 (32)
Previous Clubs: Mouscron (2008-2009), Brugge (2010-2014), Genoa (2014-2015 – loan), PSV (2015-2016 – loan), Rubin Kazan (2016-2018), Málaga (2018 – loan), Standard Liège (2018-2022)
In just two seasons in the Singapore Premier League (SPL), Maxime has already staked a claim for being the best-ever SPL import player.
In 2022, he was the league’s top-assist maker with 23 to go with 12 league goals. Then in 2023, he picked up the SPL Player of the Year gong after 25 goals and 21 assists saw him top both the SPL’s goal-scoring and assist charts, while playing a starring role in the club’s first Singapore Cup triumph.
Magic Max’s next target? To win his first-ever SPL title with the club.
Capped at all Belgian youth levels, as part of the country’s Golden Generation alongside the likes of Kevin De Bruyne, Dries Mertens and Romelu Lukaku, Maxime has proven pedigree at the highest level of the game.
Being a part of PSV Eindhoven’s 2015/16 UCL squad that qualified for the Round of 16 at the expense of Manchester United and made several appearances in European top-tier competitions for various clubs, the attacker is now happily settled in Singapore and is hungry to achieve even more with the Sailors.
