TORONTO — Midfielder Alessandro Biello and forward Antoni Klukowski, whose fathers both played for Canada, have been named to a 23-man Canada camp roster ahead of the CONCACAF Men’s Under-17 Championship.
The 20-team tournament runs Feb. 11-26 in Guatemala.
Canada will hold its camp in Guatemala ahead of its Feb. 11 opener against Trinidad and Tobago at Estadio Pensativo in Antigua Guatemala. Group F games against Barbados and the U.S. follow.
The CONCACAF competition will send four teams to the FIFA U-17 World Cup in Peru in November. The world championship was originally slated for 2021 but was postponed due to the pandemic.
Canada has been to seven of the past 18 men's U-17 World Cups, hosting the event in 1987. It has never advanced past the group stage.
The Canadian camp roster includes 17 players from the academies of the three Canadian MLS teams: nine from Toronto FC and four each from CF Montreal and the Vancouver Whitecaps.
Biello's father is Mauro Biello, who doubles as an assistant coach with the Canadian senior men's team and director of Canada Soccer's under-18 to under-23 program. Mauro Biello won four caps for Canada as a player.
Alessandro Biello, who is part of the CF Montreal academy, is also nephew of former Canadian international Nick De Santis.
Klukowski, whose father Mike won 36 caps for Canada, is with Poland's Legia Warszawa.
The three top teams in each of the four opening-round groups advance to the knockout phase.
They will join Bermuda, Puerto Rico, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic in the round-of-16. Those four teams advanced directly from CONCACAF Men's U-17 Qualifying play.
Canada Roster
Goalkeeper: Nathaniel Abraham, Toronto FC academy; Alexander O’Brien, Toronto FC academy.
Defenders: Richard Chukwu, Toronto FC academy; Aidan Fong, Vancouver Whitecaps academy; Victor Fung, Inter Miami FC academy; Etienne Godin, CF Montreal academy; Simon Guardiero, Sigma FC; Gael de Montigny, CF Montreal academy; Chimere Omeze, Toronto FC academy; Lazar Stefanovic, Toronto FC academy; Theo Rigopoulos, Toronto FC academy.
Midfielders: Jeevan Badwal, Vancouver Whitecaps academy; Alessandro Biello, CF Montreal academy; Ruben de Sa, Vitoria (Portugal); Andrei Dumitru, Toronto FC academy; Matteo Landicho-Correia, Toronto FC academy; Liam MacKenzie, Vancouver Whitecaps academy; Antoine N’Diaye, CF Montreal academy.
Forwards: Ibrahim Higazy, Rayo Vallecano (Spain); Antoni Klukowski, Legia Warsaw (Poland); Lucas Ozimec, Toronto FC academy; Erik Pop, Karlsruher FC (Germany); Kyler Vojvodic, Vancouver Whitecaps academy.
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 31, 2023
The Canadian Press
