PETALING JAYA: Malaysia’s Under-16 coach Javier Jorda Ribera has three months to look for the best young players to end their five-year wait to qualify for the 2025 Asia Cup Under-17 tournament.
His boys will be out to make amends in the Asia Cup’s qualifier in Laos from Oct 19-26.
The last time Malaysia qualified for the semi-finals was during the 2019 edition when they emerged as the group winners after edging Thailand 2-1.
Hopes are dim at the moment after the Young Tigers failed to get past the group stages in the ongoing Asean Football Federation (AFF) Under-16 tournament in Surakarta, Indonesia.
But Ribera believes his young charges can compete well in the qualifiers despite the disappointment in Indonesia as they will have regular competitive exposure through the Youth Cup, which started two weeks ago.
“We will assess the players we brought to Indonesia and the others who have started their competition in Malaysia in the last two weeks.“In three months, we will choose the best from this pool. Assessing the players from the Youth Cup will be a key point.
“We have to look for the best players by September to prepare them for the Asia Cup qualifiers.”
Malaysia are drawn in Group H with Laos, the United Arab Emirates and Lebanon.
Ten group winners and five best-placed runners-up will advance to the final scheduled from April 3-20 in Saudi Arabia.“We’ll be facing opponents who are on the same level as Australia, Thailand (in the Asean group) or even better,” said Ribera.
“We have watched Laos play in the AFF. They are a young squad with players aged 14 to 15. We do not know if they will bring the same team but they did well.
“We will find out more details on Lebanon and UAE.
“We will have some friendly matches to give the boys some international exposure in September and October.
“To me, the AFF tournament was the best platform for us to see where the team stand in international competitions and we now know what needs to be rectified.”
