Subway Young Socceroos’ Head Coach, Trevor Morgan has selected a 23-player squad for Australia’s upcoming AFC U20 Asian Cup China PR 2025™ Qualifiers to be held in Abha, Saudi Arabia between 21 – 29 September 2024.
The preliminary stage of the U20 continental tournament – which serves as qualifying for the FIFA U-20 World Cup Chile 2025™ – comprises 45 teams, divided into 10 groups, featuring five of four teams and five of five teams. Qualifying groups will be contested in a centralised league format, with teams seeded into pots based on their final rankings from the tournament’s previous edition.
Having been drawn into Group D, the Subway Young Socceroos will play their fixtures out of Prince Sultan Sports City Stadium against Afghanistan, Macau, Palestine and Saudi Arabia (home).
The Subway Young Socceroos will assemble in Abha from Sunday, 15 September as they look to acclimatise to the mountainous conditions, which are more than 2,200 metres above sea level.
Morgan brings together a squad brimming with young talent from across the Isuzu UTE A-League Men competition, headlined by Miguel Di Pizio (Central Coast Mariners FC) and Thomas Waddingham (Brisbane Roar FC).
Emerging A-League Men players Luka Jovanovic, Panagiotis Kikianis, Fabian Talladira and Johnny Yull have all been selected from Adelaide United FC; while Zach Lisolajski (Perth Glory FC) and Zane Schreiber (Melbourne City FC) have also been named.
While some key European-based players are unavailable, Louis Agosti (AC Perugia Calcio), Liam Bonetig (Celtic FC), Anthony Pavlesic (FC Bayern Munich) and Rhys Youlley (KVC Westerlo) have been made available by their respective clubs, despite these Qualifiers falling outside of a Men’s FIFA International Window.
Subway Young Socceroos’ Head Coach, Trevor Morgan said his squad has been building towards these Qualifiers for some time and are looking forward to the challenge.
— Football Australia (@FootballAUS) September 11, 2024
#YoungSocceroos Head Coach Trevor Morgan has selected a 23-player squad for Australia’s upcoming #AFCU20AsianCup China PR 2025™ Qualifiers to be held in Abha, Saudi Arabia between 21 – 29 September 2024.
Details: https://t.co/SMyLnLjmfw
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– 23.9.24, 11pm AEST
“Our planning over the last 12-18 months has been about progressively building depth, experience and belief while refining our style of play ahead of these Qualifiers and ultimately ensuring we’re at the U20 Asian Cup in 2025,” Morgan said.
“The staff see real talent in these players with many progressing into A-League Men squads across the country. It’s an exciting group who thoroughly deserve to be in this position.
“The boys have had some fantastic results against difficult opposition recently and we’ve shown what we’re capable of when we play our football – it’s important we now execute that in a tournament-style setting with plenty at stake.
“We know the conditions and the opposition will be tough, especially with so much to play for and securing a result in this type of situation will not only galvanise us as a group but illustrate the mentality we’ve built throughout this cycle.”
The 10 group Winners and five best second-placed teams will qualify for the 42nd edition of the AFC U20 Asian Cup™ which will be held in China PR from 6 – 23 February 2025.
For a complete list of Qualifying Groups for the AFC U20 Asian Cup China PR 2025™ click here.
