Soccer News of Monday, 9 July 2007

Source: --

Indian Club Hopes 3 Ghanaian recruits will shine

Indian Premier league side, Viva Kerala, hopes their three Ghanaian foreigners will set fire in this season’s NFL and draw all attention by the end of the League

The three Ghanian recruits are strikers Alfred Nil Larbi Darku and Wisdom Abbey and defender Yaw Amankwa Mireku from Ghana's champion club Accra Hearts of Oak Sporting Club, Ghana.

Wisdom Abbey played for Ghana in the Under-17 and Under-19 World Cups while Alfred Nil Larbi Darku was a member of the Ghana team for the Confederation Cup a couple of years ago and Ghanaian central defender Yaw Amankwa Mireku has participated in the World Cup qualifiers, representing his senior national side.

Chief coach Sreedharan seems optimistic on his team’s show in the forthcoming National League this season and he believes he has a balanced side with a mixture of youth and experience beside these three high quality foreigners. The average age of the local players is between 22 and 23 years while the Ghana players are aged between 26 and 28.

The squad:

Goalkeepers: Purushothaman T G (Mahindra United), Raghavendra N (Sports Authority of India, Bangalore), Jinesh Thomas (Cochin Port Trust), Shiju (Viva).

Defenders: Othallo Tabia (Mahindra United), Irungbam Khelemba Singh (Churchill Brothers), Sajin (SBT), Arun S (SAI, Bangalore), Sunil Kumar Thakur (Mohammedan Sporting), Yaw Amankwa Mireku (Accra Hearts of Oak, Ghana).

Midfielders: Satish Kumar S (Sporting Clube de Goa), Bimanyu Bimal Birua (JCT); Sagolsem James Singh (Indian Bank), Saikhom Santa Singh (Mohammaden Sporting), Parveen Rawat (Churchill Brothers), Shine Raj (Viva), Sajesh (Viva), Jain P Raj (Viva).

Forwards: Jatin Singh (Indian Bank), Alfred Nil Larbi Darku (Accra Hearts of Oak, Ghana), Wisdom Abbey (Accra Hearts of Oak, Ghana), O K Javeed (Calicut University).