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The Goa Football Association (GFA) has announced the 20-member squad, which will represent India in the upcoming Lusofonia Games to be held in Goa from January 18 to 29.
Jogos da Lusofonia, or more famously known as the Lusofonia Games, is a multinational multi-sport event organised by the Associação dos Comités Olímpicos de Língua Oficial Portuguesa (Association of the Portuguese Speaking Olympic Committees), which involves athletes from Portugal and its former territories.
The 2014 event will see countries like Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, East Timor, Guinea-Bissau, Macau, Mozambique, Portugal and São Tomé and Príncipe, and associate members Equatorial Guinea, India and Sri Lanka contest in nine disciplines which include track and field events, basketball, beach volleyball, football, judo, table tennis, taekwando, volleyball and wushu.
Goa, being a former Portuguese colony, will play host to the 11-day long event. Though the national side will not feature many of the prominent names from Goa, since the I-League clubs failed to release the players with the 35th Federation Cup due in few days, the tournament could act a launch pad for many of the national team aspirants from the state.
Indian team is likely to rely heavily on the Goan sensation
The team, coached by, the portuguese Francisco Neto, is likely to rely heavily on the much talked about ASD – Cape Town, midfielder Brandon Fernandes. Dempo’s Myron Fernandes, Mandar Rao Desai and Bengaluru FC’s Ricardo Cardozo as few of the other notable inclusion into Neto’s squad.
Following in the 20-member squad list for the Lusofonia Games:
Goalkeepers: Albino Pereira (Salgaocar FC), Ricardo Cardozo (Bengaluru FC)
Defenders: Caitano Viegas (Sesa Football Academy), Leston Afonso (Sesa Football Academy), Meldon D’Silva (Wilred Leisure SC), Ponif Vaz (Sesa Football Academy), George D’Souza (Sesa Football Academy), Surjit Singh (Salgaocar FC)
Midfielders: Richard Costa (Churchill Brothers SC), Paresh Korgaonkar (Sesa Football Academy), Dom Sahil Tavora (Dempo SC), Aniston Fernandes (Dempo SC), Alesh Sawant (Churchill Brothers SC), Brandon Fernandes (ASD – Cape Town, South Africa), Nickson Castanha (Dempo SC)
Forwards: Myron Fernandes (Dempo SC), Mandar Rao Dessai (Dempo SC), Brian Mascarenhas (Salgaocar FC), Umesh Harijan (Sesa Football Academy), Alber Gonsalves (Goa Velha SC)
