New Delhi: Indian senior men’s team head coach Igor Stimac, on Friday announced 24 probables for the two-day camp to be held in Kolkata from September 18, ahead of India’s friendly matches against Vietnam and Singapore.
A 23-member Indian team will travel to Vietnam on September 20 to play two FIFA friendly matches against Singapore and Vietnam to be held on September 24 and 27, respectively.
The three-team meet has been named as the Hung Thinh Friendly Football Tournament with hosts Vietnam and Singapore taking on each other in the opening match on September 21.
While the champions of the round-robin meet will receive prize money of $30,000, the runners-up side will take home $20,000. The third place too carries prize money of $10,000.
While speaking to the-aiff.com, head coach Stimac said, “We are happy and grateful that we have received another opportunity to get together and check where we actually stand at the moment. All of us are looking forward to playing the two friendly matches. This is going to be a truly exciting tour, especially three months after we qualify for the AFC Asian Cup 2023 in Kolkata in June this year.”
The coach agreed to a suggestion that while his boys are yet to complete their pre-season, players in the two rival sides are already playing competitive games regularly in the domestic tournaments. “But that is not going to deter us. We will do everything possible at the moment to keep the momentum going from the June qualifiers,” Stimac said.
Meanwhile, some of the boys, like Laxmikant Kattimani, Prabhsukhran Gill, Rahul Bheke, Suresh Singh and Rahim Ali, were very much in the coach’s scheme of things but could not make the current list of 24 because of injuries.
The list of 24 probables called for the camp:
Goalkeepers: Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, Dheeraj Singh Moirangthem and Amrinder Singh.
Defenders: Sandesh Jhingan, Roshan Singh Naorem, Anwar Ali, Akash Mishra, Chinglensana Singh Konsham, Harmanjot Singh Khabra and Narender.
Midfielders: Liston Colaco, Muhammed Ashique Kuruniyan, Deepak Tangri, Udanta Singh Kumam, Anirudh Thapa, Brandon Fernandes, Yasir Mohammad, Jeakson Singh Thounaojam, Sahal Abdul Samad, Rahul Kannoly Praveen, Lallianzuala Chhangte and Vikram Pratap Singh.
Forwards: Sunil Chhetri and Ishan Pandita.
–IANS