City Squad For Hong Kong Soccer Sevens Confirmed

Managed by Ben Petty, a group of 10 players from the Club's Development Squad will join the likes of Marseille, Bayer Leverkusen and Cagliari in Happy Valley for the seven-a-side tournament, staged between 27-28 May.  

Goalkeeper Daniel Iversen, who has impressed in Premier League 2 this term, gets the nod while defenders Darnell Johnson, Connor Wood, Josh Knight and Alex Pascanu also feature among Petty’s final squad. 

Liandro Martis, Hamza Choudhury and Lamine Kaba Sherif are the midfield options. Josh Gordon and Joshua Eppiah take the final two spots as City continue preparations to fly out to Hong Kong on Tuesday 23 May. 

With matches lasting just 14 minutes, the competition will pose a different test for those selected but many within the Foxes contingent will have represented the Club in similar circumstances in previous seasons.

City, who have reached a final in each of their last five appearances at the Sevens, will begin their campaign at 9:52am on Saturday 27 May against HKFC Captain’s Select.  

Shortly after, Japanese outfit Kashima Antlers will be their second opponents of the day at 11:35am before later facing Wellington Phoenix from New Zealand at 1:16pm. 

Depending on results in those Group B fixtures, Petty’s men will then contest a host of knockout fixtures the following day.  

Petty said: “We are delighted with the squad we have picked. It has a good balance to it. We’ve selected Daniel Iversen in goal. Max [Bramley] went last year but we felt Dan deserved it this year after his performances.

"Connor Wood and Alex Pascanu are very versatile and we feel they can both move into midfield if need be. Josh Knight and Darnell Johnson, too, are very good one-on-one so I’m pleased with the backline. 

"We’ve got Hamza Choudhury, who went last year and will be our captain, alongside Lamine Kaba Sherif and Liandro Martis in midfield which will give us some flair in the middle. 

"Up front, we are taking Josh Gordon and Josh Eppiah as our two main attacking threats. They’ll bring pace and power to the side and, overall, I’m very pleased with the balance to the squad."