Namibia’s Under-17 national soccer team will depart for Gaborone on Wednesday to participate in a Four Nations Tournament organised by the Botswana Football Association.
According to the Namibian team manager Dawid Morgan, the team of 20 players will be coached by Orlando Pirates coach Christy Guruseb and will be assisted by the NFA In-house coach Ricardo Mannetti.
The tournament starts on Thursday, 23 August and ends on Saturday, 25 August and will also feature the hosts Botswana, Namibia, Mozambique and Swaziland.
Morgan added that he was pleased that the Namibian players had passed Magnetic Resonate Imaging (MRI) tests to ascertain their age, as Namibia prepares to compete in the 2013 African Under-17 championship qualifiers, which will be hosted by Morocco.
Following the confirmed withdrawal of the Reunion from the qualifiers, Namibia will now have a bye and will play defending champions Burkina Faso in the first round.
Namibia will host Burkina Faso in Windhoek on November 13, and will travel to Ouagadougou for the return leg two weeks later.
The winner of the Namibia/Burkina Faso fixture will face the winner of the Ethiopia/Tunisia clash with the eventual winner booking their place at the bi-annual Championships next year.
The Namibian squad that will travel to Botswana is as follows:
Kenny Glen Kamuchete, Jonas Matheus, Kevin Kahman, Marius Hashipala, Luciano Fischer, Pienhas Willem, Mike Wamunyima, Jerome Jagger, Wilfred Fortuin, Guran van Wyk, Tony Isaack, Goerge Haikali, Moses Owoseb, Ernst Stuurman, Ronaldinho Pieters, Meico Wolf, Ricardo Katjatenja, Jacob Nakabule, Waun-lee Mwanzi and Uaseukuo Katjikua.