Football: 3 foreigners in 21-man squad for Juve match

The Football Association of Singapore (FAS) yesterday announced a 21-man Singapore Selection squad to take on Italian Serie A champions Juventus on Aug 16.

The clash will be the first football match played at the 55,000-seater National Stadium at the newly-opened Singapore Sports Hub.

Said national head coach Bernd Stange who is coaching the team: "This is going to be a great curtain-raiser for football at the new National Stadium and our players are very motivated to put on a good performance.

"We are treating this match as part of the preparations for the AFF Suzuki Cup at the end of this year. This will be a good chance to see where we stand after our recent training tour to Austria."

Last month, the Lions, as well as the Under-23 side, trained for more than two weeks in Austria.

They faced three European sides during the stint, drawing once and losing twice.

While there have been calls from players and fans to go for only national team players for the occasion, Stange has picked three foreign S-League players, as was the case when a Singapore Selection side played Atletico Madrid at Jalan Besar Stadium last year.

The foreign players are Nicholas Leandro Velez and Miroslav Pejic from Warriors FC, and Home United's Sirina Camara.

The match kicks off at 6pm. Tickets can be bought at www.sportshubtix.sg.

The 21-player squad list: Izwan Mahbud, Hassan Sunny, Al-Qaasimy Abdul Rahman, Baihakki Khaizan, Afiq Yunos, Shakir Hamzah, Safuwan Baharudin, Shaiful Esah, Gabriel Quak, Iqbal Hussain, Hariss Harun, Shahdan Sulaiman, Zulfahmi Arifin, Camara, Faris Ramli, Velez, Shahril Ishak; Shahfiq Ghani, Khairul Amri, Sahil Suhaimi, Pejic.

This article was published on Aug 1 in The Straits Times.

Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.