Oman under-17 football team will commence their campaign in the inaugural edition of the Gulf Youth Games on Tuesday as they will meet hosts United Arab Emirates on Tuesday at Al Nahyan Stadium in Al Wahda club in Abu Dhabi. Then, Oman junior team will take on Kuwait in the following round on Friday and the concluding round will take place on April 22 as Oman will face Bahrain.
On the other hand, Oman team will return to action after short break for Eid holidays on Saturday in Muscat while the team will travel to UAE on Sunday. Oman head coach Anwar al Habsi opted 24 players for this Gulf participation including two players who are playing for UAE clubs namely Ahmed al Omrani (Al Ain club) and Osama al Mamari (Masafi club).
The junior Red Warriors will eye to claim medals in this event as four teams are only taking part in the football competition including hosts UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain and the Sultanate of Oman teams.
Oman players concluded their domestic camp prior Eid al Fitr, which lasted for six days of comprehensive training sessions in Muscat. The players are in good shape physically and tactically after many training sessions which were under watchful eyes of coach Anwar al Habsi and his assistant Masab al Dhamri.
In the previous camps, Oman team had played previously with the UAE and Kuwait teams. The junior team camp in UAE's Al Ain city, which was held last February, had featured two preparatory games against hosts UAE. The first game ended in favour of the hosts by 1-0 while the second match finished in a 1-1 draw. Moreover, Oman U17 team had played against Kuwait team in Muscat last October. Both matches ended with win for Oman by 3-0 and 2-0.
Besides the Gulf Youth Games in UAE, the 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: Ali al Awaini, Qais Ameen, Osama al Mamari, Ziyad al Mataani, Fahad al Mashaykhi, Ahmed al Omrani, Al Yazen al Balushi, Muath al Hinai, Abdullah al Saadi, Yazin al Khaldi, Mudathir al Batrani, Ibrahim al Shamsi, Al Moutasim al Maqbali, Al Khattab al Rawahi, Yazeed al Mushaifri, Al Waleed al Braidee, Firas al Saadi, Mohammed al Salhi, Mohammed al Mashaykhi, Al Hassan al Qasmi, Sulaiman al Kharousi, Ibrahim al Tamimi and Ahmed al Rawahi.
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