Muscat: Oman under-17 football team will take part in the first edition of GCC Gulf Youth Games which will be hosted in UAE during April 16 to May 2. The national junior team, coached by experienced national head coach Anwar al Habsi, will eye to utilise from this participation for the forthcoming officials assignments beside registering positive results and claiming medals for the Sultanate of Oman in this crucial Gulf gathering.
Besides football, Oman delegation, represented by Oman Olympic Committee, will take part in many other sports including: athletics, table tennis, swimming, taekwondo and other sports which will be unveiled in the coming days.
As part of this upcoming gulf participation, Oman U17 players will report to their daily training sessions during the holy month of Ramadhan as the Gulf assignment will begin after Eid Al Fitr break. The junior Red Warriors will start their domestic training camp on Wednesday (April 3) which will run for few days until April 8. The delegation will travel to UAE on April 14 to commence their official participation on April 16.
It is expected the playing format for the football competitions in the event will be league system. All the Gulf teams will take part in the event and it will be a great opportunity for the coaching staff to assess the players with several games lined up.
The Oman team earlier this month concluded an external camp in Doha which had featured two warm-up matches against Qatar U17 team and Aspire Academy U16 team. Both the games ended in favour of the hosts team as the first match ended for Qatar at 1-0 and then 2-0 for Aspire Academy in the following encounter.
The friendly encounters were a great chance for the coaching staff to capitalise on the required technical outputs from this crucial camp. Also, the coach and his assisting team finalised on the starting line-up which will represent the team in the forthcoming assignments. Besides the GCC Gulf Youth Games in UAE, Oman team will have many other assignments including the AFC Asian U17 Cup qualifiers in October as the AFC U17 Asian Cup will be held in April 2025, while the qualifiers draw will take place in June. The hosts of the finals will be unveiled in June too. In the qualifiers, the topper of the groups besides the best four second placed teams in all the groups will advance to the finals along with the host country.
OMAN U17 SQUAD: Qusai al Mashaykhi, Fahad al Mashaykhi, Ziyad al Mataani, Osama al Maamari, Ali al Suwaidi, Saad al Maamari, Ali al Awaini, Ibrahim al Shamsi, Mudathir al Batrani, Yazen al Khaldi, Abdullah al Saadi, Muath al Hinai, Al Yazen al Balushi, Firas al Saadi, Mohammed al Salhi, Al Waleed al Braidee, Yazeed al Mushaifri, Ahmed al Mayahi, Said al Abadi, Mazin al Yaarubi, Ibrahim al Tamimi, Sulaiman al Kharousi, Al Hassan al Qasmi and Qais Ameen.
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