Lusofonia Games 2014: 700 athletes set to descend upon Goa, India announces football squad

The Lusofonia Games are set to start from 18th January and more than 700 athletes from 12 countries are set to feature in it. The opening ceremony will be held at Fatorda Stadium and the games will go on for 12 days.

Lusofonia games CEO Keshav Chandra said that there will be 200 athletes from India, followed by Macau (China) with 112, Mozambique (80), Angola (75), Sri Lanka (64), Portugal (56), Sao Tome and Principe (35), Cape Verde (35), Guinea Bissau (29), East Timor (26), Equatorial Guinea (20) and Brazil (7) . The exact number is close to 739 .

Volleyball will see 10 countries participating, and would also be the most watched event in the games. A temporary beach volleyball arena is being constructed on the shores of the Miramar beach for the event to take place. 120 players from six nations will participate in this event.

In the football event, there was some dull news as Portugal, Brazil and defending champions Cape Verde pulled out. CEO Keshav Chandra stated, “As for Brazil, we have not lost hope in securing their entry. We have made headway and hopefully we will get their final word within the next couple of days.”

Cape Verde have pulled out due to budget constraints and lack of time, while Portugal informed the organizers about their withdrawal due to fears of a malaria outbreak at Fatorda.

For India, the Goa Football Association (GFA) has appointed Portugual’s Francisco Neto as the coach of the 20-member Goa-India squad. Neto will be saddled by the absence of several big names in Indian football, who are busy with the 35th Federation Cup 2014 scheduled to kick-off in Kerala this month.

All eyes will be on midfielder Brandon Fernandes who is playing for ASD – Cape Town.

The squad:

Goalkeepers: Albino Pereira (Salgaocar FC), Ricardo Cardozo (Bengaluru FC)

Defenders: Caitano Viegas (Sesa Football Academy), Leston Afonso (Sesa Football Academy), Meldon D’Silva (Wilred Leisure SC), Ponif Vaz (Sesa Football Academy), George D’Souza (Sesa Football Academy), Surjit Singh (Salgaocar FC)

Midfielders: Richard Costa (Churchill Brothers SC), Paresh Korgaonkar (Sesa Football Academy), Dom Sahil Tavora (Dempo SC), Aniston Fernandes (Dempo SC), Alesh Sawant (Churchill Brothers SC), Brandon Fernandes (ASD – Cape Town, South Africa), Nickson Castanha (Dempo SC).

Forwards: Myron Fernandes (Dempo SC), Mandar Rao Dessai (Dempo SC), Brian Mascarenhas (Salgaocar FC), Umesh Harijan (Sesa Football Academy), Alber Gonsalves (Goa Velha SC).

Meanwhile, the wushu event will make its debut during this edition of the Games with 43 athletes from five nations participating in it.

As many as seven countries will participate in basketball, with 130 athletes preparing to take to the court.

Judo and taekwondo are two of the other major events in the competition.