Led by coach Danny Hay – himself a former All Whites captain with 31 international caps – the team will contest Group F of the age-group international tournament in Puerto Montt along with France, Syria and Paraguay.
All but two of the 21-man squad are based in New Zealand with goalkeeper Michael Woud with Sunderland AFC in England and defender Hunter Ashworth hailing from Patedores SC in California in the United States.
Striker Logan Rogerson is the most experienced at international level with the 17-year-old having already represented his country at both U-17 and U-23 level this year while he also made the trip to Myanmar with the full All Whites squad in September.
Hay is excited by the blend of players in his squad with the group coming together from a number of different club and academy environments around New Zealand.
“First and foremost we’ve based a lot of our mix of squad on character,” Hay said.
“I think we’ve put together a pretty talented young squad and I think it’s got the potential of doing some good stuff and exciting the fans back here.”
The New Zealand side meet France in their first game and Hay says the team’s two-week preparation programme in Chile, which includes warm-up matches against Mexico and South Africa, will give the group a good gauge of where they sit heading into their October 20 (NZ time) Group F opener.
“We’ve got France first up who are the European champions and they beat Germany 4-1 in the final of the qualifiers so we know they are going to be a very strong side so we’ve tried to play some decent sides in the lead up.
“We’re under no illusions as to how difficult it’s going to be but I’m really confident with the players we’ve got we can do some good things and I’m really excited about the prospect of getting over there and getting them together for a couple of weeks prior to that first game against France.”
As the first step on the international pathway towards the All Whites, Hay acknowledged while there is dual responsibility between developing players for the future and winning games – the on-pitch objective is clear: emulate the achievement of the Men’s U-20s earlier this year at the FIFA U-20 World Cup on home soil.
“Even though we are there to develop our players, make no bones about it, we’re in the business of results and we’ve got to follow suit in terms of the U-20s and try and win games and get out of the group.”
New Zealand have competed at six previous FIFA U-17 World Cups, reaching the round of 16 in 2009 and 2011 while serving as hosts of the tournament in 1999.
New Zealand open their Group F campaign against France on Tuesday 20 October at 9am (NZ time).
All three of New Zealand’s pool matches and all of the games from the quarter-finals onwards will be shown LIVE on SKY Sport 3.
New Zealand Men’s U-17 squad – FIFA U-17 World Cup
Goalkeepers
Reuben Clark (Onehunga Sports, NZL)
Christian Woodbridge (Onehunga Sports, NZL)
Michael Woud (Sunderland AFC, ENG)
Defenders
Hunter Ashworth (Pateadores SC, USA)
Luke Johnson (North Shore Utd AFC, NZL)
Liam Jones (Western Suburbs AFC, NZL)
Ben Mata (Onehunga Sports, NZL)
Jack-Henry Sinclair (North Shore Utd AFC, NZL)
Liam Williams (Western Springs AFC, NZL)
Midfielders
Joe Bell (Wellington Phoenix, NZL)
Oliver Ceci (North Shore Utd AFC, NZL)
Callum McCowatt (Western Springs AFC, NZL)
Owen Parker-Price (Western Suburbs AFC, NZL)
Dane Schnell (Western Springs AFC, NZL)
Sarpreet Singh (Wellington Phoenix, NZL)
Forwards
Lucas Imrie (Central Utd FC, NZL)
James McGarry (Wellington Phoenix, NZL)
Ahmad Mohammadi (Western Suburbs AFC, NZL)
Connor Probert (Western Springs AFC, NZL)
Logan Rogerson (Wellington Phoenix, NZL)
Sean Skeens (Birkenhead Utd AFC, NZL)
Coach: Danny Hay
Story courtesy of New Zealand Football

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