SINGAPORE - It was a journey meant, primarily, to aid in their sporting development but a six-week stint in Germany and the Netherlands last November and December provided much more for a group of youth footballers at Singapore Premier League club Lion City Sailors.

The team, consisting mainly of players born in 2007 and 2008, posted an attention-grabbing 27-0 win over sixth-tier German side SV Luner in their first game after arriving in Europe on Nov 6.

They played 11 matches across 42 days, taking on some higher quality opposition and collected a record of six wins, four losses and one draw. But the results, goals and dribbles were not what left the deepest impression on the teenagers.

"What I learnt," team skipper Idzham Eszuan, 14, told The Straits Times, "was responsibility and how to take care of my stuff and myself. This was the first time I was away from my family for so long."

This applied to most of the players in the team, and made adapting to jet lag and the European winter no easier.

Sailors academy director Luka Lalic, a former youth coach at Dutch side Feyenoord, said this "reaction to pressure" was exactly what he wanted to see from his players when he drew up plans for the training trip, adding that scorelines and results were secondary.

"The idea was to provide these guys with strong opposition and good challenges, and see how they respond to it - and then managing that response," said the 34-year-old former Serbia youth player.

He and academy general manager Tan Li Yu came up with an itinerary for the excursion - understood to cost six figures - before presenting them to Sailors owner Forrest Li, who "did not hesitate at all" to green light the investment.

The players, added Lalic, were thrilled at the idea. So too, were most of the parents, although some were apprehensive, mainly with concerns over Covid-19.

But these were allayed through video conference briefings and meetings about protocols and arrangements put in place on the trip, said Lincoln Mao, father of forward Nathan, 13.

"My wife and I knew the trip represented a great opportunity for Nate to develop as a player as well as grow as a person, and learn personal responsibility," said the pastor, 42.

Logistic arrangements went smoothly for the Sailors' travelling party of more than 40, including coaches and administrators, allowing the players to focus on the football. The trip also allowed them to play 11-a-side games after almost two years, as pandemic restrictions in Singapore had limited such opportunities.

The junior Sailors even beat their counterparts from Bundesliga giants Borussia Dortmund 7-0, although they suffered a 6-0 defeat four days later in a second sparring match.

Mustafa Al-Saffar, the Sailors' Under-13 coach who linked up with the squad for the first time in Germany, said he was delighted by their progress.

The Iraq-born Scot, a former youth coach at Scottish clubs Dundee United and Dundee FC, singled out the team's penultimate game, a seesaw 4-4 draw with FC Cologne, as a reflection of their maturity and personalities coming to the fore.

"If that game was the second or third game on the trip, nine times out of 10 we would have crumbled in terms of mentally and physically," he said.

One of Idzham's fondest parts of the trip was overcoming his fear of heights with the support of his teammates, as he negotiated high obstacles and ziplines during a visit to a climbing park in Rotterdam.

Al-Saffar, 31, noted: "I remember telling the boys near the end of the trip: 'I saw you all come as individuals and now I see you guys leaving as a team'."

Sailors' academy goalkeeper coach Shahril Jantan, 41, noted the strides made by the two shot-stoppers under his charge Ciaran Chew and Edgar Leo as they also came out of their shells.

The former Singapore international said: "They had to come out of their comfort zone, scream, shout, command the back four… (This) presence is very important especially when you're a goalkeeper."

In 2000, when he was 18, Shahril spent five weeks attached to English Premier League side Arsenal. He said while training methods have evolved, the major takeaways from such elite European clubs remain the same: the detail that goes into preparation for training and games, and the intensity put into them.

This time, he gained a lot as a coach, through discussions and even hands-on sessions with counterparts at Feyenoord and Dortmund.

Such exposure for the Sailors' technical staff - from goalkeepers to fitness and sports science to even match analysis - to the best practices at the highest levels was also part of the wider aim of the trip, said Lalic.

Even administrative staff, who were allowed access to restricted areas of matchday operations at Dortmund, benefited.

"In youth development and in football in general, a big thing is self-realisation," noted Lalic. "We can train here (in Singapore) for 1 1/2 years, say we have to get better, but… now they have seen and experienced what the benchmark is, they know what we need to work towards."

Nathan for example, has returned home with a different mindset. "Before, sometimes in training I do things for the sake of doing them," he said. "But I now realise that every element of training is useful to us, so I put everything into it."

Results (selected)

FC Utrecht 0-5 Lion City Sailors

FC Dordrecht 5-1 Sailors

Feyenoord 6-1 Sailors

Dortmund 0-7 Sailors

Dortmund 6-0 Sailors

Arminia Bielefeld 0-2 Sailors

FC Cologne 4-4 Sailors