By FRANCIS XAVIER
KOTA KINABALU: Three Sabah footballers have been retained in the National Under-22 training squad that is preparing for the 2020 AFC U-23 Championship Qualifiers scheduled for March, this year. The trio, Ariusdius Jais, Evan Wensley Wenceslaus and Jordan Ollerenshaw, left for the national capital yesterday to report for centralised training camp at Wisma FAM in Kelana Jaya.
They were among the 26 players that have been short-listed by national Under-22 head coach Datuk Ong Kim Swee. Late November, last year, the trio was also part of Ong’s 30-member provisional squad, but only Ariusdius and Evan made it into that 20-member team that took part in the Newspaper Cup Under-21 football tournament in Nah Trang City, Vietnam, last month. This time around, Kim Swee short-listed 26 names for the training camp.
After a few days of training, Ong and his boys will be heading to Thailand on Sunday to play three international friendly matches where they are scheduled to take on Bangkok Glass FC (Jan 14), Army United FC (Jan 16) and Ayutthaya United FC (Jan 18).
