The Goa Football Association (GFA) has announced a 20-member Goa-India squad for the Lusofonia Games Goa 2014 from January 18 to 29.

The Lusofonia Games (Jogos da Lusofonia) is a multinational multi-sport event organized by the ACOLOP – Associação dos Comités Olímpicos de Língua Oficial Portuguesa (Association of the Portuguese Speaking Olympic Committees), which involves athletes from Portugal and its former territories.

Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, East Timor, Guinea-Bissau, Macau, Mozambique, Portugal and São Tomé and Príncipe, and associate members Equatorial Guinea, India and Sri Lanka will contest in nine disciplines. The nine disciplines are athletics, basketball, beach volleyball, football, judo, table tennis, taekwando, volleyball and wushu.

India will be represented in the Lusofonia Games by its former Portuguese province Goa. The Lusofonia Games will be held for the first time in India and it will be hosted in various venues around Goa.

The Goa-India football team will be coached by Portuguese gaffer Francisco Neto in the football tournament which is expected to produce some entertaining matches. But Neto is forced to handle the absence of big names in his squad as a number of I-League clubs have not released their players due to the upcoming 35th Federation Cup 2014 scheduled to kick-off in Kerala on January 14.

Many football fans are looking forward to see ASD – Cape Town star Brandon Fernandes in action at the Lusofonia Games Goa 2014. The final of the football tournament will be played on January 24.

GOA-INDIA 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)