{"id":586473,"date":"2026-09-01T02:52:20","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T02:52:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/586473\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T02:52:20","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T02:52:20","slug":"new-zealand-u-17-mens-squad-named-for-tournament-in-japan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/586473\/","title":{"rendered":"New Zealand U-17 men’s squad named for tournament in Japan"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New Zealand U-17 men\u2019s squad has been named for the 2026 International Youth Soccer Tournament, to be held in Niigata, Japan, this month.<\/p>\n

The tournament, which New Zealand also participated in in 2023, brings together U-17 teams from around the world to play competitive matches ahead of major international tournaments, including the FIFA U-17 Men\u2019s World Cup.<\/p>\n

For the 2026 edition, New Zealand will face the Niigata U-17 regional rep side, and the national U-17 teams representing Myanmar and Japan.<\/p>\n

The tournament takes place two months ahead of the FIFA U-17 Men\u2019s World Cup, which will be played in Qatar from November 20 till December 14.<\/p>\n

New Zealand have been drawn in Group G with Belgium, Mali and Vietnam at the World Cup tournament.<\/p>\n

Head coach Martin Bullock has selected an 18-player squad for the Japan tour, with 14 players based domestically and four playing overseas in Australia, England and the Republic of Ireland.<\/p>\n

Fourteen of the players selected were part of the squad that won the 2025 OFC U-16 Men\u2019s Championship, the qualifying tournament for the FIFA U-17 Men\u2019s World Cup.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is really important to give players the opportunity to test themselves in competitive international games ahead of the FIFA U-17 World Cup, so this tournament is the perfect preparation,\u201d Bullock said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe majority of the group already know each other well from the OFC U-16 Men\u2019s Championship campaign last year, but this tournament gives us even more opportunity to build on those relationships on and off the pitch, as well as introduce some new players, ahead of naming our squad for the World Cup in just over a month\u2019s time.\u201d<\/p>\n

New Zealand squad<\/p>\n

Tomas Blackhall \u2014 Melville United \/ Hamilton Boys\u2019 High School, New Zealand
Luke Carter \u2014 Western Springs \/ Avondale College, New Zealand
Zach Ashmore \u2014 Wellington Phoenix \/ Scots College, New Zealand
Grayson Cattle \u2014 Wellington Phoenix, New Zealand
Jack Clegg \u2014 Wellington Phoenix \/ New Zealand Performance Academy Aotearoa, New Zealand
Willem des Tombe \u2014 Wellington Phoenix \/ St Patrick\u2019s College, New Zealand
Gethyn Foster \u2014 Wellington Phoenix \/ New Zealand Performance Academy Aotearoa, New Zealand
Cailean Hamilton \u2014 Wellington Phoenix \/ New Zealand Performance Academy Aotearoa, New Zealand
Sean Kane \u2014 Auckland FC \/ St Kentigern, New Zealand
Lachlan MacIntyre \u2014 Brentford FC \/ Elthorne Park High School, England
William Martin \u2014 Queensland Lions \/ Ipswich Grammar School, Australia
Joseph McIntyre \u2014 Wellington Phoenix \/ New Zealand Performance Academy Aotearoa, New Zealand
Matias Nunez \u2014 Auckland United \/ Rutherford College, New Zealand
Cruz Pietersen \u2014 Wellington Phoenix \/ New Zealand Performance Academy Aotearoa, New Zealand
Keigo Shimokawa \u2014 Melbourne Victory \/ Penleigh and Essendon Grammar School, Australia
Zac Thomas \u2014 Bohemian FC \/ Castleknock Community College, Ireland
Ben Trenberth \u2014 Wellington Phoenix \/ New Zealand Performance Academy Aotearoa, New Zealand
Sena Vesty \u2014 Christchurch United \/ Burnside High School, New Zealand<\/p>\n

Fixtures<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Game to be played on Thursday September 17, 2026<\/p>\n

New Zealand v Niigata
Niigata City Athletic Stadium, 3pm (NZT)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Game to be played on Saturday September 19, 2026<\/p>\n

New Zealand v Myanmar
Niigata City Athletic Stadium, 6pm (NZT)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Game to be played on Monday September 21, 2026<\/p>\n

New Zealand v Japan
Denka Big Swan Stadium, Niigata, 6pm (NZT)<\/p>\n

This story was first published on September 1, 2026.<\/p>\n

More football stories<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New Zealand U-17 men\u2019s squad has been named for the 2026 International Youth Soccer Tournament, to be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":586474,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[227787,288821,111,43,139,69],"class_list":["post-586473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-fifa-u-17-mens-world-cup","tag-martin-bullock","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=586473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/586474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}