All Whites and Men’s U-23 head coach Darren Bazeley has named his initial squad for this month’s OFC Men’s Olympic Qualifier, the tournament to decide which team from the OFC region qualifies for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. 

The 23-person squad features 17 players that are based in Aotearoa New Zealand, with four members of the squad coming from Australia and two from the USA. 

Bazeley has promoted six players who were part of his U-20 team that reached the last 16 at the FIFA U-20 World Cup in May to his U-23 side for the tournament.  

With the tournament starting outside of the FIFA international window, Bazeley has not been able to call up a number of players based in European leagues, however, as there are no restrictions on teams adding players to their squad during the competition, additional players may still be named during the campaign when available.

The full squad is:

Lachlan Bayliss - Newcastle Jets, Australia
Riley Bidois - Dandenong City, Australia
Oscar Browne - Western Springs, New Zealand
Willem Ebbinge - Harvard University, USA
Matthew Ellis - Western Springs, New Zealand
William Gillion - Auckland City, New Zealand
Isaac Hughes - Wellington Phoenix, New Zealand
Alby Kelly-Heald - Wellington Phoenix, New Zealand
Lukas Kelly-Heald - Wellington Phoenix, New Zealand
Joe Lee - Auckland City, New Zealand
Nathan Lobo - Auckland City, New Zealand
Dan McKay - Wellington Phoenix, New Zealand
Scott Morris - Christchurch United, New Zealand
George Ott - Avondale FC, Australia
Alex Paulsen - Wellington Phoenix, New Zealand
Aaryan Raj - Eastern Suburbs, New Zealand
Jesse Randall - Charleston Battery, USA
Campbell Strong - Eastern Suburbs, New Zealand
Finn Surman - Wellington Phoenix, New Zealand
Luis Toomey - Eastern Suburbs, New Zealand
Oskar van Hattum - Wellington Phoenix, New Zealand
Ryan Verney - Eastern Suburbs, New Zealand
Zac Zoricich - Central Coast Mariners, Australia

“It is exciting to kick-off this new U-23 cycle and start working towards our goal of qualifying for Paris 2024” says head coach Darren Bazeley. 

“Following the FIFA Women’s World Cup, football has never been in a better place in New Zealand so it is great to have this tournament at home and continue that momentum.  

“While it is disappointing to have players like Ben Old, Jay Herdman, Ronan Wynne and Sam Sutton miss out through injury, I’m really pleased with the squad and staff we have been able to assemble and know the team can’t wait to come into camp next week.

“The unique thing about this tournament is that we are able to add and amend our squad from game to game so while I want to congratulate the 23 players named, I also want to make clear to players who just missed out on this initial selection that the door is very much still open, including for our players based overseas.”

Team staff for the tournament are:

Head Coach - Darren Bazeley
Assistant Coach - Martin Bullock
Assistant Coach - Chris Greenacre
Goalkeeping Coach - Danny Knight
Analyst - Hyun Roh
Strength and Conditioning - Sunz Singh
Head Physio - Roland Jeffery
Team Manager - Wade Molony
Equipment Manager - Zach Haydon

The OFC Men’s Olympic Qualifier 2023 will be played in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland from 27 August – 9 September 2023 with matches at Go Media Stadium Mt. Smart, The Trusts Arena and North Harbour Stadium. 

New Zealand U-23 are in Group A with Fiji and Papua New Guinea and will play all group matches at Go Media Stadium Mt. Smart. 

New Zealand U-23 Group A Fixtures: 

Sunday 27 August 2023:
3pm - New Zealand v Papua New Guinea

Wednesday 30 August 2023:
3pm - New Zealand v Fiji

Article added: Wednesday 16 August 2023