(Photo: Unleash the Roar! /Ng Chrong Meng)

The Lion City Sailors are pleased to announce that Nur Ain Salleh, our first female Scholar of the Sailors Football Academy, has been awarded the Unleash The Roar! (UTR!) Overseas Football Scholarship, and will be leaving for Spain to further her football education.

Ain, who turns 15 on 7 January, will spend the next four years training and playing for the youth team of Madrid CFF. The Spanish club’s senior team is currently 10th in Liga F, Spain’s top-tier women’s professional league. Liga F ranks among the top six national leagues under the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) coefficient, and thus offers a high calibre of competition and development for emerging players like Ain.

Notable players who have emerged from Madrid CFF’s youth system include members of the current Spanish national women’s team, Ona Batlle and Vicky López, both of whom now play for FC Barcelona.

Ain will also continue her academic pursuits in Spain, and will enrol in King’s College School Soto de Viñuelas, a British international school in Madrid. There, she will work towards completing the International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE), which is equivalent to the Singapore-Cambridge General Certificate of Education Ordinary Level (GCE O-Level).

The latest addition to the 2024 cohort of UTR! Overseas Football Scholarship recipients, Ain joins Nadila Nur Danisha and Charlotte Chong to complete a trio of national Under-19 starlets at Madrid CFF.

Ain’s football potential has been evident since the age of six, when she began her journey in organised football through the Football Association of Singapore’s (FAS) Girls’ Programme. She later joined the LFA Protectors in 2017, and in June 2020, became the first female scholar in the Lion City Sailors Football Academy Elite Development Programme (EDP) following the club’s revamp.

A right winger with superb technical ability and a steely determination, Ain has consistently impressed over the past few years, representing the Academy’s Elite boys’ teams in both local and international matches, where she showcased her potential against European counterparts of her age.

In June 2024, Ain was promoted to the Sailors Women’s Team, becoming one of the youngest players ever to feature in the Deloitte Women’s Premier League (WPL). She played a significant role in helping the team secure a historic three-peat, scoring five goals despite only joining mid-season.

Ain was also a standout performer in Daniel Ong’s side during their inaugural Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Women’s Champions League campaign, where she started both matches against India’s Odisha FC and Jordan’s Etihad Club.

The Sailors had initially planned to nominate Ain for an overseas stint in the latter stages of 2025. However, her exceptional performances and rapid development led the club and the UTR! Overseas Football Scholarship committee to accelerate her trajectory, as they recognised that playing abroad now would be most beneficial for her growth.

Sport Singapore’s Chief of Sport Development Group, Mr Marcus Tan, said, “We are delighted to be able to help Ain in her pursuit of becoming a professional player. 

“At just 14, she has proven that she is a top prospect, having set the Women’s Premier League alight with some assured performances. We are confident she will benefit from her time in Spain, the current Women’s World Cup champions.”

Sailors Academy General Manager Tan Li Yu believes Ain is fully ready to take this big step toward her pursuit of a professional football career. 

“We’ve been looking for opportunities to send Ain overseas and we felt this is the right time and the right move for her. While she has the talent, it is her attitude and hunger to learn that will take her far in achieving her goals,” he said. 

“She has shown consistently over the years that she is one of the best in her age group, despite playing against boys. She is an exciting talent that we in Singapore football should cherish and properly nurture. We feel that Spain is the right environment for her to develop her game and we’re excited at what comes of this for her.”

Yeong Sheau Shyan, Head of the Sailors Women’s Programme, first spotted Ain’s talent when she was just six years old, and has since backed her to become a catalyst for the rise of women’s football in Singapore, with the potential to become the country’s first bona fide female football star.

“From when she was six years old playing with the FAS Cubs, to her stints with Arion FA and the LFA girls, anyone who has watched her could see that she’s different. She’s hugely talented and easily outplays everyone, including boys of her age,” said the former national player. 

“The worry I had was whether we had the kind of environment in Singapore for a girl of her talent to develop into her fullest potential, but the rise of the LCS Elite Programme filled that gap. Over the years, I’ve seen her take her talent up quite a few notches to a level that was unimaginable before. 

“I’m proud of how far she’s come and I hope she’ll keep working hard over in Spain and eventually become the player who can change Singapore women’s football.”

As she prepares to embark on a journey of over 10,000 kilometres to chase her dreams, Ain is determined to follow in the footsteps of current Brisbane Roar star Danelle Tan and become one of the few Singaporean female footballers to play professionally abroad — while paving the way as a trailblazer for future generations.

“It has always been a goal of mine to play professionally overseas, and I want to play in the Liga F one day. It won’t be easy – I will need to adapt to the physicality and the technicality of the game there, but I want to get out of my comfort zone and make my family proud,“ said Ain, who already had a taste of Spain during two-week training stints with Atletico Madrid’s Under-14 girls’ team in December 2022 and December 2023. 

“I’m really grateful to everyone who made this move possible, including my coaches at the Sailors Academy, and I’m going to work my hardest to show what I’m capable of over there.” 

Ain’s move comes on the heels of another milestone for the Sailors Academy: in July 2024, Nur Muhammad Asis became the first Singaporean in history to sign a professional football contract with a top-flight Portuguese club, securing a one-year loan to Portuguese Primeira Liga side C.F. Estrela da Amadora.

The Sailors Academy are one of only four academies in Southeast Asia to be conferred a Two-Star Academy status by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) under its AFC Elite Youth Scheme.