The Oceania qualifiers will be staged from April 17 to 25 at Chapuis Stadium on the island of Espiritu Santo in Vanuatu with the winners set to book themselves a berth in the United Arab Emirates. Getting ready to fight it out for that sole spot are the finest young players on offer from Cook Islands, Fiji, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu.
The 14th edition of the tournament is likely to be one of the most competitive yet and defending champions New Zealand are sure to face strong challenges from several of the other Pacific Island nations. Much focus has gone into the development of young talent across the Oceania region in recent years and youth academies have been established in a handful of OFC’s 11 member associations.
The pathways in place have already produced many players and some of these will be in action for their countries in Vanuatu, meaning the Young All Whites face a far-from-straightforward task in earning their fourth title in a row.
Coach Darren Bazeley – a former English professional with the likes of Watford and Wolves before finishing his career in the A-League – does, however, have a strong squad at his disposal and the names of several of his young stars will be familiar to football fans across the Pacific. Andre de Jong and Matthew Ridenton are the sons of ex-All Whites Fred de Jong and Michael Ridenton while fellow midfielder Alex Rufer is the nephew of former Oceania Player of the Century Wynton Rufer. But there is plenty of talent elsewhere in the group and most players have the added benefit of being familiar with each other’s games due to a shadow version of the squad competing in the ASB Youth League, New Zealand’s national U-20 competition.
Considering they are on home soil and have one of the strongest youth programmes in the Pacific, Vanuatu are probably the best placed team to challenge New Zealand’s recent dominance of this event. Coach Etienne Mermer, who attended the inaugural OFC B Licence coaching course last December, has taken a similar approach to New Zealand in terms of the build-up as his side have also been playing against local clubs to ready themselves for the tournament. The players will be in confident mood after defeating the first team of Seveners United 4-0 in the last of these friendlies and will hope to take that goalscoring form into the competition. Striker Alex Saniel was on target in that match and will work in tandem with fellow forwards Gregory Rouard, Ruben Frank and Joe Nako to find the goals to fuel Vanuatu’s title push.
After watching their U-20 counterparts finish runners-up in that age-group’s OFC tournament last month, Fiji will also have high hopes of a top placing and will want to restore their reputation as a force to be reckoned with at U-17 level after putting in a disappointing showing at the previous event two years ago. A repeat performance will not be
deemed acceptable and mounting a genuine title challenge will be the only thought on the mind of coach Kamal Swamy, who has international experience after assisting Imdad Ali during Fiji’s attempts to qualify for the London Olympic Games last year. There is little such experience on the pitch though with captain Iosefo Verevou the only member of the squad to have taken part in the previous edition of the tournament.
Also light in the experience stakes are New Caledonia and Papua New Guinea, the former of whom have no returnees from the previous campaign but do have a player with the potential to be one of the best on show in Vanuatu. Coach Kamali Fitialeata will have the services of midfielder Mickael Partodikromo, who is learning his trade in New Zealand at the Asia Pacific Football Academy – a programme quickly earning a reputation for producing promising talent – and spent time training in the youth set up of Premier League club Swansea City earlier this year.
Papua New Guinea have just one player in their ranks with experience of this tournament in defender John Ray and coach Bob Morris appears to face a tough task in launching a title bid in the face of strong challenges from the tournament’s more fancied sides.
Also likely to find it difficult to break into the top placings are underdogs the Cook Islands, who qualified after emerging triumphant over American Samoa, Samoa and Tonga in the preliminary tournament, held in Samoa during January. The majority of Tuka Tisam’s side are products of the national association’s academy programme but this local contingent is supplemented by several overseas players in New Zealand-based midfielder Samuel Maoate-Cox, goalkeeper Keegan Inia and striker Maro Bonsu-Maro, as well as midfielder Thane Beal, who plays his club football in Australia. Pekay Edwards is an important figure as the side’s captain and main striker and will be Tisam’s primary hope of finding the net regularly.
The FIFA U-17 World Cup will take place in the United Arab Emirates from October 17 to November 8.
For the full squad lists click here

Share