Uganda Cranes head coach Sebastien Desabre has named a team composed of 23 players in preparation for the upcoming international friendlies.
The coach revealed the team during the FUFA weekly press conference that took place at the Federation’s headquarters on Wednesday.
The team summoned will feature in the two games that FUFA has confirmed including one against Malawi on 27th March at Mandela National stadium while the other will come earlier on 24th March against an opponent that is yet to be confirmed.
The squad has three goalkeepers, eight defenders, eight midfielders and four forwards with four of the 23 being locally based players.
4 local based players The four locally based players include; Nico Wakiro Wadada(Vipers SC), Timothy Awany(KCCA FC), Milton Karisa (Vipers SC) and Abraham Ndugwa(Masavu FC), 14 players are based in Africa but play outside of Uganda while the rest feature for clubs around the globe.
Desabre explained that he needed to evaluate the foreign based players whom he has not worked with since taking charge late last year and it is the reason why he summoned a few local based players.
‘I have not neglected the local based players because I have watched the league and I’m impressed with the level of competition. I saw many during the CHAN tournament in Morocco so I wanted to use these upcoming friendlies to look at the foreign based players’ noted Sebastien.
In addition, the French tactician stated he has been in touch with most of the foreign based players and thus he believes the two friendly games will help the technical team to assess them.
‘I have been in contact with most of them (players) on phone and we discussed a lot but I believe the two games will help us to make a good evaluation’ stated Sebastien.
The head coach also revealed new faces on his technical bench including Sadiq Wassa as the goalkeeping coach in the absence of Fred Kajjoba who is undergoing a coaching in the USA.
The others include fitness coach D’Antonio Gerome (UEFA A Licensed Fitness coach) who will be available for only up to the end of the two games and another physiotherapist to join Ivan Ssewanyana.
The other nine play elsewhere on the African continent while the rest are either in Europe or Asia.
The players are expected to enter camp on 19th March with training commencing the following day.
The two friendly games are used as precursors for Cranes upcoming engagements that include 2019 African Cup of Nations qualifiers against Tanzania, Lesotho and Cape Verde.
Uganda currently leads group L with three points after one round ahead of the aforementioned teams.
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