New Delhi: National coach Armando Colaco on Tuesday named the 30-member squad that will leave for Male on Thursday morning to play a friendly against Maldives on July 10.
The team will then travel to Doha to play two more games against Qatar and Kazakhstan before crossing swords with United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the World Cup qualifiers in Abu Dhabi on July 23.
“The coach is yet to announce the pre-World Cup squad,” said an official of the All India Football Federation (AIFF). “For the qualifiers, we would be allowed to register only 23 players,” he said.
Nine Calcutta based players have found berths in the 30-member team with midfielder Lalkamal Bhowmick of United Sports making his debut for the senior national team. Eight players are from Dempo.
Meanwhile, Spanish coach Juan Manuel Lillo, one of the candidates for the post of AIFF technical director, was present during the national team’s practice session at the Ambedkar Stadium on Tuesday.
The 45-year-old Spaniard, the youngest to manage a La Liga club, spent a couple of hours at the stadium and exchanged pleasantries with national coach Armando Colaco.
AIFF secretary-general Kushal Das said: “He (Lillo) is here on a one-day trip just to have a feel of things. We haven’t yet finalised the technical director. We haven’t set a time frame to appoint one either.”
The squad
Goalkeepers: Subrato Paul (Pune FC), Sandeep Nandy (East Bengal), Karanjit Singh (Salgaocar), Laxmikant Kattimani (Dempo).
Defenders: Gourmangi Singh, Denzel Franco, Robert Lalthlamuana, Rowilson Rodrigues (all Churchill Brothers), Raju Gaekwad (Indian Arrows), Valleriano Rebello, Debabrata Roy, Sameer Naik and Mahesh Gawli (all Dempo).
Midfielders: Mehtab Hossain, Syed Rahim Nabi, Harmanjot Khabra (all East Bengal); Steven Dias (Churchill Brothers), Jewel Raja Sheikh, Shilton D’Silva, Lalrindika Ralte (both Indian Arrows), Peter Carvalho, Climax Lawrence, Clifford Miranda (all Dempo), Lalkamal Bhowmick (United Sports) and Rakesh Masih (Mohun Bagan)
Forwards: Sunil Chetri (United Sports), Jeje Lalpekhlua (Indian Arrows), CS Sabeeth, (Viva Kerala), Sushil Kumar Singh and Baljit Sahni (East Bengal).
