FIFA U-17 World Cup: 21 players selected to represent India

Sunil Chhetri presents the jersey to India U-17 football team.

With just a few days left for the FIFA U-17 World Cup to begin, twenty one players have been selected to represent India for the first time in a FIFA World Cup on Thursday.

In an effort to field a strong team for the FIFA U-17 World Cup 2017 India, the India U-17s faced Macedonia, Serbia and Benfica amongst other teams. The Indian Colts had also participated in a Four-Nation Tournament in Mexico where they lost against Mexico and Colombia, but held Chile to a 1-1 draw with ten-man.

India U-17 head coach Luis Norton de Matos said that the team will fight to win each match, despite there only being 5% chance of winning. “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. 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.”

The 21 boys who will represent India 🇮🇳 for the first time in a FIFA World Cup.#BackTheBlue #FIFAU17WC pic.twitter.com/MoHX7mNCxD

— Indian Football Team (@IndianFootball) 21 September 2017

India have been drawn in Group A alongside USA, Colombia and Ghana, and will face USA on October 6, followed by Colombia and Ghana on October 9 and 12 respectively at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi.

Here is the list of 21 selected players for India U-17 team:

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, Abhijit Sarkar, Komal Thatal, Lalengmawia, Jeakson Singh, Nongdamba Naorem, Rahul Kannoly Praveen, Md. Shahjahan

FORWARDS: Rahim Ali, Aniket Jadhav