Aden Green named in Australian Joeys squad
Sydney-sider Aden Green has been named for the first time in the Australian Joeys squad, which will play in a tournament in Turkey from next week.
Last year was a milestone one on the football pitch for former Maccabi-Hakoah FC junior Aden Green, but what the talented defender and Moriah College student has already achieved in the first month of this year means the sky’s the limit in 2023.
Green was a member of Australia’s boys’ football team that competed in the 2022 Maccabiah Games in Israel, he captained the NSW U16 boys’ team to victory at the 2022 Australian National Schools Football Championships and was named Most Valuable Player of the tournament, and at the end of last year, he joined the Western Sydney Wanderers’ U18 boys’ squad.
Last month, Green not only captained the U16 Australian Schoolboys football squad on a highly successful tour of the UK and Ireland, he was named Player of the Tour on January 31, just before the team flew back home.
And during the tour, Green was named for the first time in the Australian Joeys squad, which will play in a tournament in Turkey from next week, as preparation for the 2023 AFC U17 Boys’ Asian Cup in June, and their qualifying campaign for the 2023 FIFA Youth World Cup in Peru.
Green told The AJN on Monday from London that captaining the NSW U16 boys’ All Schools team last September “really helped me in this tour of UK and Ireland [in terms of] developing my football skills and leadership capability”.
“To be captaining the Australian Schoolboys team is honestly a dream come true, and our team bonded really well from the minute we met.
“The coaching staff created an environment that’s given us the best opportunity to perform, and due to all of this, it helped us adopt a winning mindset, despite the challenges of playing in very different weather conditions.”
The Aussie Schoolboys only lost one match out of eight – a 1-3 defeat against the Republic of Ireland Schoolboys – and they scored a total of 32 goals on tour, while only conceding 11.
Their victories included toppling England Independent Schools, Welsh Schools, Swansea City, Northern Ireland, Celtic FC, Arsenal FC, and Estudiantes London.
Green said the team’s most memorable win was a 5-2 triumph against Northern Ireland in East Belfast, having come back from a 1-2 deficit early in the second half.
“We went into that game as the underdogs … and this brought us a level of determination that we’d never felt before.
“I have never felt so rewarded and proud than I did after the full-time whistle blew.”
Speaking about his next big challenge, Green said, “It was such an honour to be called up into the Joeys squad.
“I have been working towards this for over a year now, and it has been my hardest goal to achieve.
“The support I’ve had is amazing, and my personal expectations are to prove myself, so I can stay in this environment, and help Australia qualify for the FIFA Youth World Cup in November.”
The Joeys will play in the Antalya Youth Cup in Turkey from February 8-18, against the Czech Republic, Morocco and Uzbekistan.
Of joining the Western Sydney Wanderers Academy, Green described it as, “the best youth club in Australia … and I’m super excited for the 2023 season to start”.
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