Canada Under-20 men’s national team head coach Mauro Biello has named a 20-player roster for the 2022 Concacaf Under-20 Championship, the federation announced Friday.
GOALKEEPERS (2)
- Ben Alexander – Vancouver Whitecaps FC Academy
- Dino Bontis – Forge FC Hamilton
DEFENDERS (8)
- Noah Abatneh – Lazio (Italy)
- Matteo Campagna – Vancouver Whitecaps FC 2
- Loïc Cloutier – CF Montréal Academy
- Keesean Ferdinand – CF Montréal
- Kobe Franklin – Toronto FC II
- Jamie Knight-Lebel – Bristol City FC (England)
- Kwasi Poku – Forge FC Hamilton
- Justin Smith – OGC Nice (France)
MIDFIELDERS (5)
- Matt Catavolo – Valour FC
- Jesse Costa – VfL Wolfsburg (Germany)
- Maël Henry – CF Montréal Academy
- Gabriel Pellegrino – SC Freiburg (Germany)
- Rida Zouhir – CF Montréal
FORWARDS (5)
- Jean-Aniel Assi – Cavalry FC
- Tiago Coimbra – SE Palmeiras (Brazil)
- Kamron Habibullah – Pacific FC
- Hugo Mbongue Mbongue – Toronto FC II
- Lowell Wright – York United FC
Schedule
Canada have Group E games as follows:
- June 18 vs. Cuba (4 pm ET)
- June 20 vs. United States (8:30 pm ET)
- June 22 vs. Saint Kitts and Nevis (4 pm ET)
The squad
The squad features several homegrown players from MLS clubs, including CF Montréal defender Keesean Ferdinand, Vancouver Whitecaps FC defender Matteo Campagna and CF Montréal midfielder Rida Zouhir.
There are five training players who were also named: goalkeeper Adisa De Rosario (Toronto FC Academy), midfielder Hugo Tavares (FC Paços de Ferreira) and defenders Jefferson Alphonse (CF Montréal), Adam Pearlman (Toronto FC) and Eric White (Vancouver Whitecaps FC).
How to qualify
The 2022 Concacaf Under-20 Championship, which runs from June 18-July 3 in Honduras, will see its top four teams reach the 2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Indonesia. The top two teams reach the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
The Concacaf U-20 Championship’s top three finishers in the four groups will advance to the Round of 16 and join four teams already qualified for the knockout round. From there, teams will play a single-elimination tournament with the four semifinalists qualifying for the 2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup and the two finalists qualifying for the 2024 Olympics.
