Football: CJSOI tournament-Seychelles U17 selection leave for Mauritius |25 July 2013

The selection are preparing for the Jeux de la CJSOI slated Djibouti in January next year. Therefore this tournament is part of their preparation to help test their progress.

Head coach Gavin Jeanne told Sports Nation that they started their preparation six weeks ago when they learned about this football tournament. He added that they selected players on the three main islands according to their performances in the different competitions, noting that some even play for first and second division sides.

“Actually we started preparing for the Jeux de la CJSOI last year but the players were not regular at training. But last month, we intensified our training to three times a week. However, we faced some complications especially with the eleven pre-selected players from the inner islands league who were unable to attend training,” explained coach Jeanne.

He said the situation improved though when they held two training camps during the weekends where they had all the 30 players.

“Later we brought down the squad to 19 players last week for this tournament,” said coach Gavin Jeanne, adding that he has quite satisfied with the way the players have worked in training and this made it difficult to select the final 19 players which comprise five from the inner islands.

“We decided to leave out some players for this trip to Mauritius especially those who are under 16 but once we return we will recall them as we keep preparing for the Jeux de la CJSOI,” noted coach Jeanne who is being assisted by St Louis Suns coach Michel Renaud.

Coach Jeanne said that they have had a few friendly matches and on Tuesday before their departure they had their final test match against The Lions.
Coach Jeanne said he is hoping for some good performances from his players as they aim to reach the final.

“We are going all out for the gold medal but we want to at least reach the final and we also want to play well,” coach Jeanne said.

He added that preparation has gone fine as most of the players are playing actively in the league so they only had to work on tactics.

He said his team will be ready for their first match against Mauritius ‘A’ in pool A on July 29 as this will mean they will have a few days to acclimatise. Their second match will be once again against Mauritius ‘A’ on July 31. 

The winners of pool A will face the losers of pool B in the semifinal which will either be Reunion or Mauritius ‘B’ after the Malagasy team pulled out at the last minute.
The Seychelles team will be headed by Georges Bibi and they are expected back in the country on August 2.
The players making this trip are:

Raynold Nicette, Aubrey Cupidon, Don Fanchette, Aldo Dufrene, Danny Madeleine, Gillio Suzette, Alexandro Lespoir, Wesley Esther, Abdul-Haq Jumaye, Rai Jean-Louis, Julio Edmond, Kelvin Radegonde, Ian Vel, Graham Cafrine, Perry Monnaie, Golbert Mellon, Darren Gonzalves, Kevin Estico and Duane Romain.
Sports Nation wishes the team all the best in this competition.

R. J-L.