Versleijen names 23-man Qantas Young Socceroos squad

Qantas Young Socceroos Head Coach Jan Versleijen has selected a squad of 23 players for the upcoming AFC U19 Championships which will be held in Saudi Arabia from 31 October- 14 November 2008.

Qantas Young Socceroos Head Coach Jan Versleijen has selected a squad of 23 players for the upcoming AFC U19 Championships which will be held in Saudi Arabia from 31 October- 14 November 2008.

The AFC U19 Championships, which will be held in the city of Dammam, will also serve as the qualifying tournament for the FIFA U-20 World Cup Egypt 2009 which will be held in July.

The Qantas Young Socceroos will go into the tournament with confidence following their recent win at the ASEAN Football Federation U19 Youth Championships in Thailand where they defeated the likes of China PR, Thailand and the Korea Republic.

"We have had a good preparation which includes our recent win in Thailand,” said Versleijen.

“Following all our training camps and lead-up matches, I believe we have assembled the strongest possible squad for this important tournament.

“We have added some new players due to injury, in particular to cover for the injury to Jason Hoffman. I wish Jason a speedy return to fitness and should we qualify, I would expect that he would join us at the World Cup in Egypt in 2009.

“It is important for Australian Football that we qualify for the World Cup to improve the development of this group of players," concluded Versleijen.

Included in the squad are seventeen Hyundai A-League players as well as James Brown from the Australian Institute of Sport.

The Hyundai A-League players are Isaka Cernak (Queensland Roar), Luke De Vere (Queensland Roar), Nathan Elasi (Melbourne Victory), James Holland (Newcastle Jets), Marko Jesic (Newcastle Jets), Matthew Jurman (Sydney FC), Ben Kantarovski (Newcastle Jets), Milos Lujic (Melbourne Victory), Sam Munro (Sydney FC), Tahj Minniecon (Queensland Roar), Daniel Mullen (Adelaide United), Jason Naidovski (Newcastle Jets), Mitchell Nichols (Queensland Roar), Thomas Oar (Queensland Roar), Andrew Redmayne (gk) (Central Coast Mariners), Sebastian Ryall (Melbourne Victory), Nikolas Tsattalios (Sydney FC).

Versleijen has also included five players from overseas based clubs in Oliver Bozanic (Reading FC, England), Alex Cisak (gk) (Leicester City, England), Peter Cvetanovski (Borussia Mönchengladbach, Germany), Daniel Ireland (gk) (Coventry City, England) and Ryan McGowan (Hearts FC, Scotland).

The Qantas Young Socceroos have been drawn in Group D and will play their play their first match of the tournament against Thailand on Saturday 1 November, and then face Uzbekistan on Monday 3 November before their final group match against Jordan on Wednesday 5 November.

The Qantas Young Socceroos will depart Australia on Wednesday 22 October for a 7 day training camp in Abu Dhabi and will play a friendly match against the Korea Republic on Monday 27 October as part of their preparations, before arriving in Saudi Arabia on 29 October to prepare for their first match of Championships. The top 4 nations from the AFC U19 Championships will qualify for the FIFA U-20 World Cup which will be held in Egypt from 10-31 July 2009.

Qantas Young Socceroos Squad List

Oliver Bozanic (Reading FC, England), James Brown (AIS), Isaka Cernak (Queensland Roar), Alex Cisak (gk) (Leicester City, England), Peter Cvetanovski (Borussia Mönchengladbach, Germany), Luke De Vere (Queensland Roar), Nathan Elasi (Melbourne Victory), James Holland (Newcastle Jets), Daniel Ireland (gk) (Coventry City, England), Marko Jesic (Newcastle Jets), Matthew Jurman (Sydney FC), Ben Kantarovski (Newcastle Jets), Milos Lujic (Melbourne Victory), Ryan McGowan (Hearts FC, Scotland), Sam Munro (Sydney FC), Tahj Minniecon (Queensland Roar), Daniel Mullen (Adelaide United), Jason Naidovski (Newcastle Jets), Mitchell Nichols (Queensland Roar), Thomas Oar (Queensland Roar), Andrew Redmayne (gk) (Central Coast Mariners), Sebastian Ryall (Melbourne Victory), Nikolas Tsattalios (Sydney FC).