By Victor Kanayo
Three participating countries – Mozambique, Zambia and South Sudan have landed in Cairo, one week ahead of the 2023 U20 African Cup of Nations scheduled to kick-off between February 19 and March 11.
The three countries are among 12 nations in the continent that qualified to do battle for four available tickets to be at the FIFA U20 World Cup in May this year at Peru.
According to the competition official schedule, Mozambique’s Os Mambas juniors will play the opening match against hosts Egypt exactly next week Sunday at 16:00 local time at Cairo International Stadium.
The Mozambicans will also play in group A which also comprises of Senegal and Nigeria.
South Sudan, who are playing in their first AFCON, are in Ismailia and will face in group B, made up of Congo, Uganda and Central African Republic.
The Zambians, who triumphed in this competition in 2017, will play their first Group C match on February 21 against Benin at the Alexandria Stadium.
Meanwhile, the Egyptian Football Federation has unveiled a 21-man squad.
This comes a few hours after Nigeria’s head coach Ladan Bosso announced Nigeria’s squad of largely home-based players for the youth championship.
Egypt, though, will be among the favourites to win the tournament after the national U-20 team coach, Mahmoud Gaber called up several of the country’s most talented youngsters.
Top of the pile is former Al Ahly teen wonder, Salah Pasha who is a striker.
There are other forwards including Ahmed Sharif, Youssef Hassan and Bilal Mazhar.
Salah Pasha scored three goals for the Egyptian youth team in the Arab Cup, which the Pharaohs lost to Saudi Arabia on penalties in the final.
He holds Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah as his role model, adores Real Madrid, and dreams of helping the Egyptian national team to reach and win the World Cup in 2026.
Other members of the Egyptian side are goalkeepers – Ahmed Nader Al-Sayed, Karim Ahmed Nabil and Mustafa Makhlouf.
Abd al-Rahman Rushdi, Abd al-Rahman Jouda, Omar Fayed, Youssef Shaaban, Ahmed Reda, Iyad al-Asqalani, Islam Abdullah, Karim al-Dabis, Raafat Khalil, Khaled Awad and Mahmoud Ahmed Morsi are defenders.
The midfielders are Muhammad Fares – Tariq Alaa – Omar Al-Saei – Majed Hani – Muhammad Hamdi – Ahmed Abdel Rahim – Ahmed Nader Hawash – Youssef Al-Azab
