Canada Soccer announced on Thursday that Vancouver Whitecaps FC Residency midfielder Vana Markarian and striker Gloire Amanda are among 18 players called up to Canada's U-18 men's national team. Also included on the roster are Whitecaps FC Residency graduates Aymar Sigue and Dario Zanatta.
With a camp and a tournament in Slovakia about to start, a new cycle is underway with all players hoping to become members of Canada’s men’s U-20 Team competing in 2017.
The group of players in this iteration of Canada’s men’s U-18 team, under the guidance of head coach Rob Gale, arrives in Europe on Thursday before getting three days of training before tournament action gets underway on Monday, April 20.
“This camp is a chance for us to build on a very successful and competitive tournament in France last October with the core of the squad returning,” said Gale. “Plus it’s a chance to relook at some of the 1997 players from the last 18 months as we continue to scour and look for talent far and wide.”
That first game will come against the hosts from Slovakia before the team heads back into action the next day against China PR.
They’ll get one day off before their final group stage game on Thursday, April 23 against Austria and depending on results, they’ll get a final game for either the championship or third place on Friday, April 24.
“These are an important part of our youth programming to get our players tournament expertise and become used to high level competition in a short congested intense period of time,” said Gale. “Especially having now experienced the new qualifying format in CONCACAF, later in the year we will look to expose them into the tough CONCACAF environments.”
CANADA
GK- Marvis Kreitling | GER / Niendorfer TSV U-19
GK- Dayne St. Clair | CAN / Vaughan SC
D- Eric Davies | USA / FC Dallas Academy
D- Marcus Godinho | CAN / Toronto FC Academy
D- Mackenzie Harrington | USA / Sacramento United
D- Aaron Hidalgo-Mazzei | USA Real Salt Lake - AZ Academy
D- Thomas Meilleur-Giguere | CAN / Académie Impact de Montréal
D- Mateo Restrepo | CAN / Toronto FC Academy
M- Vana Markarian | CAN / Vancouver Whitecaps FC Residency
M- Shamit Shome | CAN / FC Edmonton Academy
M- Thomas Shores | CAN / FC Edmonton Academy
M- Ballou Jean-Yves Tabla | CAN / Académie Impact de Montréal
M- Luca Uccello | CAN / Toronto FC II
M- Patrice Walker | CAN / Toronto FC Academy
F- Gloire Amanda | CAN / Vancouver Whitecaps FC Residency
F- Aymar Sigue | USA / University of Tulsa
F- Rahim Thorpe | CAN / Toronto FC Academy
F- Dario Zanatta | Unattached / Sans club
