FA Šiauliai

Football Academy of Šiauliai, more commonly known as FA Šiauliai, is a Lithuanian football club founded in 2007 after a merger between VšĮ “Napoleono” football club and Klevo sports school. For the first ten years of its history, FA Šiauliai played in the regional and lower Lithuanian leagues.

In 2019, the club from Šiauliai applied for a license for the second division in Lithuania even though they finished just 6th in the previous season in the third Lithuanian division. The license was not granted, but exceptional participation was allowed, and they finished sixth in their first season in the second division.

In the 2021 season, FA Šiauliai was one of the season’s leaders and one of the primary candidates for promotion to the A Lyga. In the last match of the season, FA Šiauliai faced Jonava FC, and they needed a win only to catch them on points, they secured a 1:0 win and were even on points. Because of this, the Golden Match was scheduled where the winner won the second division. FA Šiauliai came out victorious after beating Jonava FC on penalty kicks to win the league.

In their first season in A Lyga, FA Šiauliai finished 7th. The following season, they had a career year, 3rd place finish, which secured their first European games the following year, in which they lost to FCI Levadia on aggregate.

FA Šiauliai are famous for their unofficial policy of focusing on local players. In 2024 season, their only non-Lithuanian players were Latvian striker Dāvis Ikaunieks and Ukrainian right-back Yevgen Yefremov, both veteran 30 year old players.