Singapore's 0-0 draw against Vietnam at My Dinh helped coach Gavin Lee receive attention from fans.
The captain of the lion island team grew up in a family with a football tradition when his father was also a coach. From a young age, Gavin Lee trained in the youth teams of Tampines Rovers, then entered the Singapore National Football Academy and once played for U14 Singapore.
However, the time playing with players who later became pillars of the national team made Gavin soon realize his limits.
It was also at that time that I realized I couldn't keep up, couldn't compete with them, so I decided to choose another path," Gavin Lee once shared.
That path led him to coaching work very early. At the age of 16, Gavin followed his father to the field and started with simple tasks such as setting goals in training sessions. At the age of 18, he joined the JSSL Singapore academy, working with many age groups before becoming the academy's general director in 2016.
In parallel with the process of accumulating practical experience, Gavin Lee studied at Nanyang Technological University and graduated with a degree in Sports Science and Management. He successively completed the AFC training certificate C-class in 2011, B-class in 2015 and continued to get a license A after a course in Vietnam in 2019, completing it in early 2020.
Coach Mai Xuan Hop (Dong A Thanh Hoa) - who participated in the course with Gavin Lee in 2019 shared: "He is very intelligent. In addition, having worked in England for many years is also an advantage of Gavin".
2019 also marked a turning point when Gavin Lee first took on the role of head coach at Tampines Rovers. At the age of 29, he helped the team win the runner-up title in the Singapore championship and win the National Cup.
After working in the Singapore national team coaching staff from 2024, Gavin Lee was appointed head coach in November 2025 with an 18-month contract.
At the age of 36, he currently leads the national team with many players who were once teammates or grew up together in the youth training system with him.
The recent draw against Vietnam continues to show that Gavin Lee is gradually affirming his choice to switch to coaching.
