Seven Olé Football Academy players were invited to the recent New Zealand U20 camp in Auckland earlier this month.
Those invited included past and present players, with Callum McCowatt, Joash Sutherland, Jonty Bilderbeck, Nando Pijnaker, Owen Parker-Price, Tinashe Marowa and Xavier Green all receiving the call.
The 2017 FIFA U20 World Cup will be hosted by South Korea between 20th May and 11th June. Although the pools are yet to be drawn, current qualifiers include hosts South Korea 
Iran 
Japan 
Saudi Arabia 
Vietnam 
New Zealand 
Vanuatu 
England 
France 
Germany 
Italy 
and Portugal 
The 2017 U20 Africa Cup of Nations, 2017 CONCACAF U20 Championship and the 2017 South American Youth Championship are all to be played between the end of January and the beginning of March.
Olé Football Academy coaches will be attending the tournament as well after the success of Vanuatu, reaching the 2016 OFC U20 Championship final which earned them a spot at this years World Cup – the first time Vanuatu has qualified for a FIFA tournament since VFF formed in 1934, 83 years ago!
The U20 World Cup, which was held in New Zealand in 2015, boasts an incredible list of former players, including the likes of; Diego Maradona, David Trezeguet, Thierry Henry, Seydou Keita, Iker Casillas, Xavi, Andreas Iniesta, Javier Saviola, Adriano, Dani Alves, David Silva, Cesc Fàbregas, Lionel Messi, Sergio Agüero, Alexis Sánchez, Gerard Piqué, Juan Mata, Luis Suárez, Dan Keat, Craig Henderson, Shinji Kagawa, Ángel Di María, Jordi Alba, Jesse Edge, Paul Pogba, Ryan Thomas and Noah Billingsley to name quite a few.
A final piece of trivia for this years U20 World Cup, Serbia, the 2015 champions, will not be able to defend their title as they failed to reach the final round of the UEFA qualifying tournament. In doing so, they became the fifth consecutive incumbent title holder to fail to qualify for the subsequent tournament.
