A Twenty-Five member Digicel U19 national football team was named last Sunday at the ANZ Stadium in Suva on Sunday.
This was after a week of trial in which 46 players from Fiji and abroad took part in Suva.
Digicel national team Head Coach Flemming Serristlev said they had selected the best U19 team for Fiji.
“We had a panel of selectors in which we had our technical director Timo Jankowski, national U16 head coach Sunil Kumar, U19 head coach Ronil Lal and I think we selected the best players in a position we needed.”
“We actually feel we had the opportunity to select the best U19 squad that ever has been done in Fiji with the number of local and overseas players,”
“We have named the best 25 players but it is possible the squad may change as we don’t know what will happen in the period of two and half months before the competitions,”
Serristlev said they were very optimistic that the team will compete at a high level.
“I am very optimistic we will have the best team to compete in the OFC U19 Championship,”
‘Our goal is to qualify for the FIFA U20 World Cup,”
Coach Ronil Lal added that it was not an easy task to select the best players.
“We had 46 players and it was not an easy task to select the best players but we had the panel who have seen the potential of the position of players we needed,”
“We had four teams and they competed amongst themselves in which the players were selected with on their performance,”
“No doubt there was huge competition for the spot in the final squad but as you all know we cannot get all the players but as Flemming has said the door is still open for replacements,”
Lal said it was not his individual decision to select the team.
“It’s not my decision but we had a very good panel of selectors who eyed the best players,” said Lal
The former Labasa coach said the players would march into camp early next month.
“We had two and half months to prepare and the players will march into camp on July 4th at Fiji FA Academy in Ba for the OFC U19 Championship to be played in Tahiti in September.
Meanwhile, six overseas based players have made the cut into the final 25-member squad.
The six players include Peter Ravitasai from Maidstone United, who was also part of the national team to Qatar for the OFC Qualifiers in April.
The others are Mohammed Mustafa from Brisbane Roar U19 and Under 23, Oliver McFadyan from StockPort County FC, Abdullah Aiyas from Bonnyrigg White Eagles, Caleb Aaron Prasad from Manukau United Under 23 and Aydin Ashaz Mustahib from Auckland United.
The remaining 19 local players are Samuela Novoce, Joel Dayal, Geary Kubu, Sterling Vasconcellos, Pawan Singh, Sailosi Tawake, Mohammed Fataul, Clearance Hussain, Junior Dekedeke, Gulam Razool, Mozeel Mohammed, Sailasa Ratu, Zoheb Rahim, Faazil Faizul Ali, Nabil Begg, Melvin Mani, Peniasi Rotidara, Isikeli Sevanaia, Joji Vuakaca.
