Wanderers Academy player Noah Pagden has been called into the Young Socceroos squad for the AFC U19 Championship 2018 Qualification matches.
Wanderers Academy player Noah Pagden has been called into the Young Socceroos squad for the AFC U19 Championship 2018 Qualification matches.
Padgen joins Mathieu Cordier, Kosta Grozos, Fabian Monge, Tass Mourdoukoutas, Moudi Najjar, Tate Russell and Marc Tokich who were all named in the squad.
Australia was originally scheduled to host Group J of the qualification process in Shepparton, Victoria, however the Federal Government’s decision not to grant visas to the team from DPR Korea forced AFC to move Group J to a neutral venue.
Alongside the Young Socceroos and DPR Korea, Group J includes the Northern Mariana Islands and Hong Kong. Australia needs to top Group J in Vietnam, or be one of the five best runners-up from the ten groups, to advance to next year’s AFC U19 Championship Finals which will be held in Indonesia.
The Young Socceroos squad will head to Hanoi on Wednesday 1 November 2017 and play Northern Mariana Islands in their first match on Saturday 4 November 2017. The team will play its second game against Hong Kong two days later, before completing the qualification process against DPR Korea on Wednesday 8 November 2017.
All of Australia’s matches will be played at Vietnam’s National Youth Football Training Centre.
Melbourne City FC (8 players) and Western Sydney Wanderers FC (8 players) are strongly represented in the squad, while Brisbane Roar (3 players), Melbourne Victory (1 player), Sydney FC (1 player), and Perth Glory (1 player) will also have players representing Australia in Vietnam next month.