Arsenal and Corinthians touch down for 25th Canon Lion City Cup

The English side will feature Bruneian Faiq Jefri Bolkiah, with club legend Liam Brady leading them, while the Brazilian team will hope to showcase their samba football

The 25th Canon Lion City Cup will start on June 8 and the invited foreign Under-15 teams have started to land in the country a few days before the tournament, with the Arsenal and Corinthians teams touching down at the Changi Airport on Thursday.

The Arsenal contingent, led by head of youth development and club legend Liam Brady, was greeted by the official Arsenal Singapore Supporters Club and the gesture was clearly well received by the guests.

“The hospitality has been great so far,” Arsenal coach Kwame Ampadu said after they checked-in at Park Royal on Kitchener Road, the official hotel of the Lion City Cup.

“The boys are really looking forward to the tournament.”

Also in the English side’s squad is Bruneian Faiq Jefri Bolkiah, whose family is related to the Southeast Asian Sultanate.

15-year-old Faiq is based in London and is a trialist at the club, and had attended the PDA Football School prior to his attachment with Arsenal. 

Corinthians, who arrived hours after Arsenal, were forced to make changes to their squad as midfielder Felipe Oliveria had to be withdrawn after sustaining a broken arm and will be replaced by forward Cesar Santos Bernardino.

Both teams will be having their training sessions at the Jalan Besar Stadium on Friday morning and Arsenal will play their tournament opener against Singapore’s National Football Academy (NFA) U16 on June 8 in Group A. Corinthians, who are drawn in Group B, will be up against the NFA U15s on the same day. 

The other invited clubs, Eintracht Frankfurt and PSV Eindhoven, are scheduled to arrive in Singapore today.

Eintracht will be looking to build on the recent success of German football by sending a talented squad of players to the competition, but they will be without the services of midfielder Marvin Diehl who was denied clearance into Singapore as he is from Kosovo. He will be replaced by Onur Kazazi.

The Lion City Cup group stages will end on June 12 with the semifinal taking place two days later and the final on June 16.

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Arsenal and Corinthians touch down for 25th Canon Lion City Cup