FOOTBALL – Bahrain’s under-17 football national team have lined up four friendly matches during their two-and-a-half-week training camp in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The nationals departed yesterday for Sarajevo and are conducting this gathering as part of their preparations for upcoming competitions, headlined by the AFC U17 Asian Cup 2026 qualifiers, to be held in November.
The tune-up games during their trip include two against local clubs and another two against Bosnia and Herzegovina’s under-17 national team.
The first match is scheduled for Sunday next week against their counterparts from FK Sarajevo. They then go up against FK Zeljeznicar Sarajevo on August 21, before playing the host nation’s youth squad for the first time on August 25. The two national teams then face each other once more on August 28, the day prior to their scheduled return to the kingdom.
The Bahrainis, coached by Croatian tactician Ugo Klingor, have a 29-player squad in Sarajevo. The roster includes Khaled Al Khaja, Kamil Al Sitrawi, Jaafar Sadeq, Karrar Howaida, Haitham Shafi, Ahmed Hani, Omar Abdulwahab, Husain Zainuddin, Eyad Tohami, Idris Al Mansour, Eyad Mustafa, Bader Abdulaziz, Faisal Abdulsalam, Mohammed Salah, Mujahid Al tairi, Hussain Amir, Jassim bin Jamea, Mohammed Al Hassouni, Abdulrahman Majed, Ali Al Araibi, Abdulla Saad, Hussain Zuhair, Anas Mohammed, Talal Mahmoud, Mohammed Al Jazzaf, and goalkeepers Rashed Al Khalaki, Omar Al Balooshi, Hussain Al Majed, and Abdulla Khalil.
The Bahrainis’ Sarajevo trip is their second major overseas camp this summer. They had just returned earlier this month from a trip to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.
The AFC U17 Asian Cup 2026 qualifiers are scheduled for November 22 to 30, and the Bahrainis are one of 38 teams looking to vie for just seven available places for the tournament, to be held from May 7 to 24 in Saudi Arabia next year.
The field has been divided into seven groups – each to be held at a centralised location – with Bahrain drawn in Group A alongside hosts China, Bangladesh, Brunei, Timor-Leste, and Sri Lanka.
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