The New Zealand men’s national football team are missing a number of big names after the squad for the upcoming Olympic Games in Paris was announced.
Head coach Darren Bazeley today announced his squad of 18 players for Paris, three of whom may be over 23 years old.
It looked like Bazeley would select Chris Wood, Liberato Cacace and Marko Stamenic as his three overage players. However, these three players were not available for selection by their European clubs.
Instead, Bazeley has selected Sarpreet Singh, Michael Boxall and Joe Bell as the three senior players, all of whom have experience with the All Whites.
Bazeley said he faced a number of challenges in putting together the squad as some clubs did not make their players available for selection.
“With the competition taking place outside the FIFA window, there have been some challenges with clubs releasing players when they all really want to take part in the tournament, but that is an issue that many countries are facing,” Bazeley said.
“In many ways it shows the level of our players that top clubs want to keep players like Chris Wood, but thankfully we have built up real depth so talented options can come in instead.
Bazeley said he wanted to continue the momentum built after the OFC Nations Cup win, as more than half of the players selected played for the All Whites in that recent tournament.
The Paris squad includes many players who have played for the All Whites. Of the 15 players under 23, 11 have played for the first team.
Ben Old has been included in the selection. Today it was announced that the young New Zealander is going to the French club AS Saint Etienne.
Six current Wellington Phoenix players have been selected for the 18-man squad, alongside Auckland FC player Jesse Randall.
They will play in Group A against host country France, Guinea and the United States. The first competition will take place on July 25 in Nice against Guinea.
The New Zealand squad for the Olympic Games in Paris consists of:
Alex Paulsen* – AFC Bournemouth, England
Kees Sims – GAIS Gothenburg, Sweden
Tyler Bindon* – Reading FC, England
Michael Boxall* – Minnesota United, USA
Lukas Kelly-Heald* – Wellington Phoenix, New Zealand
Matthew Sheridan – Wellington Phoenix, New Zealand
Finn Surman* – Wellington Phoenix, New Zealand
Sam Sutton* – Wellington Phoenix, New Zealand
Joe Bell* – Viking FK, Norway
Fin Conchie* – Wellington Phoenix, New Zealand
Matt Garbett* – NAC Breda, Netherlands
Ben Old* – AS Saint-Etienne, France
Sarpreet Singh* – Non-affiliated
Riley Bidois – Loudoun United, USA
Jay Herdman – Vancouver Whitecaps, Canada
Jesse Randall* – Auckland FC, New Zealand
Oskar van Hattum* – Wellington Phoenix, New Zealand
Ben Waine* – Plymouth Argyle, England
*Capped for the All Whites
Alternative players:
Lachlan Bayliss, Liam Gillion, Henry Gray and Isaac Hughes.
Alby Kelly-Heald, Scott Morris, Luis Toomey, Finn Linder, Aaryan Raj, Ronan Wynne, Zac Zoricich and Nathan Lobo have been designated as non-traveling reservists.
