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England Team News

England sqaud selection at Minehead, Butlins - March 29th.

March 27^th 2009

Jamie O'Rouke picks his first England squad.

England Beach Soccer manager Jamie O’Rourke will be selecting his first England squad from a group of talented players on March 29th at Butlins – Minehead for the forthcoming international beach soccer season.

There will be a few noticeable absentees from the initial selection weekend most notably last year’s captain GC Giancovich is recovering from a shoulder injury. Also absent for varying reasons will be GC’s big brother GP, Chris Attwood and Mitch Day.

Sean Rann who has been a regular and a key player for the England team since 2005 has just announced his international retirement, and so ruled himself out this summer. This will be a huge loss for England and will leave a big hole in the England defense that needs to be plugged. Sean has been an instrumental part in England recent rise and played key roles in some of England’s biggest and best wins.

Jamie first training/selection squad consists of:

Andrew Reading
Gareth Icke
Sam Webb
Terence Bowes
Jason Bowen
Lee Docherty
Gary Funnell
Jonathan Rodriguez
Stuart Brown
Chad Gould
James Younghusband
Mark Mitchell
Tobi Donbavand
Matthew Evans
Richard Sprooles
Dean Blake
Steve Black
Kieron O'Callaghan

It’s going to be a busy year for the England team as they gear up for this years FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Qualifiers in the Spanish city of Castellón de La Plana on June 7th – 14th. Yet the ultimate goal will be to participate in the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup 2009 which is being staged this November in Dubai.

Butlin’s, the popular holiday resort in Minehead, will be regarded as England’s home turf this season and with showcases such as, the UEFA League Event featuring Eric Cantona’s France on July 16th – 19th, England will certainly be looking for inspiring performances. This will be England’s first UEFA League Event which will contain some of the best teams in the world.