FIFA U-17 World Cup: India announce 21-member squad

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Bengaluru, September 22: India on Thursday (September 21) announced the 21-member squad for the FIFA Under-17 World Cup to be held from October 6.

The Indian football will make history as this will be the first ever Indian team to participate in a FIFA World Cup and as hosts, India have been drawn in Group A alongside USA, Colombia and Ghana.

The Indian team host USA on October 6, followed by Colombia and Ghana on October 9 and October 12 respectively and all the Group A games will be played at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi.

"We believe that we are prepared for the FIFA U-17 World Cup We have worked hard and made progress, but at the same time we go directly to a high level competition against some of the best teams in the world," de Matos said in a statement released from All India Football Federation.

"We will fight to win each match even if there is only five percent chance of winning. We will not give up and nothing is impossible in football. We plan to show the world that we are on the same page as them," he added.

Namit Deshpande and Sunny Dhaliwal are the two NRIs named in the team by head coach Luis Norton de Matos. Deshpande, a United States national, has a valid Indian passport while Dhaliwal has surrendered his Canadian passport and acquired an Indian one.

To prepare for the prestigious tournament, the AIFF organized exposure tours for the U-17 side where they played Macedonia, Serbia and Benfica amongst other teams.

They had also participated in a four-nation tournament in Mexico where they lost to the home side and Colombia, but held Chile to a 1-1 draw with 10 men.

"Against Chile and Macedonia, we registered good results but the FIFA U-17 World Cup will be a competition and competitions are different from friendly matches," de Matos said.

"However, the level of the players is very high and we plan to give it our all once the FIFA U-17 World Cup kicks off," he said.

The Indian Squad:

Goalkeepers: Dheeraj Singh, Prabhsukhan Gill, Sunny Dhaliwal.

Defenders: Boris Singh, Jitendra Singh, Anwar Ali, Sanjeev Stalin, Hendry Antonay, Namit Deshpande.

Midfielders: Suresh Singh, Ninthoinganba Meetei, Amarjit Singh Kiyam (captain), Abhijit Sarkar, Komal Thatal, Lalengmawia, Jeakson Singh, Nongdamba Naorem, Rahul Kannoly Praveen, Md. Shahjahan.

Forwards: Rahim Ali, Aniket Jadhav.