Young IGA NPL NSW Mens 1 players selected in Young Socceroos squad

James Baldacchino, Christopher Naumoff and Nicholas Olsen have all been selected in Paul Okon’s Young Socceroos squad for an upcoming international tournament to be played in Spain from the 12^th of August till the 21^st.
Both Naumoff and Olsen have been playing with current IGA NPL NSW Mens 1 league leaders Sutherland Sharks while Baldacchino with the South Coast Wolves will use this tournament as an opportunity to impress Okon and his coaching staff.
Olsen has been one of the Sharks’ standout players for 2013 and his performances were noticed by the Western Sydney Wanderers who have secured his services post IGA NPL season while Naumoff will also play in the National Youth League competition with Sydney FC.
Baldacchino has been a regular member in Richard Lloyd’s squad with the Wolves and has gained a lot of experience playing in NSW’s top tier competition.
Okon has selected 16 Australian-based and 4 players from overseas-based clubs.
Anthony Bouzanis and Hagi Gligor were also members of the Young Socceroos Squad that recently competed at the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Turkey.
Okon is looking forward to the start of the new FIFA U-20 World Cup qualification campaign.
“This is the first stage of a new campaign with a new playing group,” said Okon
“We had originally planned to have a training camp prior to the tournament to have a look at a larger group of overseas based players to possibly have included in this squad, but due to a number injuries he have had to postpone that camp until later in the year.
“This (COTIF) Tournament is a very good one with four tough matches which include Spain and Mexico.
“This will be our first opportunity to develop our playing style and test ourselves against quality opposition,” concluded Okon
This is the 30^th edition of the COTIF Tournament and will involve ten U-19 Men’s National teams from Argentina, Australia, Belarus, Bulgaria, Canada, Mexico, Japan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Spain.
All matches will be played at the Estadio Municipal Els Arcs De L’Alcúdia.
This will be the first competitive outing for this group of players who are looking to eventually qualify for the 2015 FIFA U-20 World Cup which will be held in New Zealand. The first stage of this qualification process is the AFC U-19 Championship qualifiers which will be held in Hong Kong from 3 to 11 October 2013.