Midfielder Jordi Valadon has earned a call-up to the Olyroos squad ahead of the West Asian Football Federation (WAFF) U-23 Championship in Saudi Arabia.
Subway Olyroos’ Head Coach, Tony Vidmar has made three changes to his 26-man squad for the fifth edition of the West Asian Football Federation (WAFF) U-23 Championship – Saudi Arabia 2024.8jdhbbjnm
Patrick Yazbek (Viking FK) has been called into the Subway Socceroos’ squad for their upcoming World Cup Qualifiers against Lebanon, while Jacob Farrell (Central Coast Mariners FC) and Ryan Teague (Melbourne Victory FC) have both been ruled out due to injury.
The trio will be replaced by Franco Lino (Viking FK), Paul Okon-Engstler (SL Benifica) and Jordi Valadon (Melbourne Victory FC).
The WAFF U-23 Championship – played out of Al Hofuf, Saudi Arabia from 18 to 26 March – will feature Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Korea Republic, Saudi Arabia, Thailand and United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The Championship format sees the eight participating teams broken up into four groups, who will each play three matches throughout the window, with opponents beyond the first match dependent on results.
The Subway Olyroos have been drawn into Group D alongside Iraq and will then face either Egypt or UAE, before the match schedule opens up ahead of their final fixture.
It will be the last opportunity for the Subway Olyroos to assemble prior to Vidmar selecting his 23-man squad for the AFC U-23 Asian Cup Qatar 2024™ in early-April.
The Subway Olyroos are one of 16 teams who have qualified for the AFC U-23 Asian Cup Qatar 2024™, should they finish in the top three they will automatically qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympics as the AFC representatives, while the fourth-best team will play an AFC-CAF play-off match for the final qualification spot.
Credit: Football Australia
