AFC Under-16 Championship: India ready for tournament!

The AFC Under-16 Championship will kick-off tomorrow in the Iranian capital Tehran and run until October 6. India are placed in Group D along with Uzbekistan, Syria and China. The talented Indian Junior boys arrived in Tehran in the early hours of today after their three week training camp in Dubai.

India open their tournament on Sunday against Uzbekistan, then face Syria on Tuesday and in the final game on Thursday neighbours China will be the opponent. India will play all their matches at the Rah Ahan Stadium.

Head Coach Colm Toal said about the task ahead, "Every country goes into a Championship hoping to be successful and win every match they play. It may sound cliché but we are taking one match at a time. But yeah, we will look to win the match for sure. We have played at this level in 2008. I can tell you this is a very difficult Championship and in 2008, we found out the competition was very tough."

"At this level it's not about results. Rather, it's more about the developmental part. If you look at the squad of 2088, 17 of them are playing in the I-League at the moment and 5 have been in the National Camp with three having already made their debut. Three years down the line if we get some of the boys from this present U-16 squad emulating it, I feel we have been successful," Colm Toal added.


INDIA Under-16

Goalkeepers
Supratim Bhattacharjee (West Bengal), Avinash Kumar (Uttar Pradesh), Agaipal Singh (Punjab)

Defenders
Mohammed Sajid Dhot (Punjab), Gurba Gagrai (Jharkhand), Sarthak Golui (West Bengal), Jimmy Maibam (Manipur), Myron Mendes (Goa), Nabin Rabha (Assam), Vivekananda Sagayaraj (Karnataka), Manraj Singh (Punjab)

Midfielders
Geremsha Basumatary (Assam), Alen Deory (Assam), Hanan Javed (Kerala), Nitin Jyal (Uttarakhand), K. Lalramzuava (Chandigarh), Raja Rawat (Uttarakhand), Germanpreet Singh (Punjab), Issac Vanmalswama (Mizoram)

Forwards
Daniel Lalhlimpuia (Chandigarh), Uttam Rai (Sikkim), Kamalpreet Singh (Punjab), Vanlalduatsanga (Mizoram)

Officials
Colm Joseph Toal (Head Coach)