FC Helsingør's young winger Elijah Just has been selected for the New Zealand national team's upcoming friendlies against Lithuania and Ireland. It is the first time since Daniel Udsen was selected for the Faroese national team that FC Helsingør has had a player in a national A team.
The selection comes after “Eli”, as he is simply called on a daily basis, received really good feedback for his performances in the summer's U20 World Cup in Poland.
“The U-20 team did really well under Des Buckingham's leadership at the World Cup, and I have had in-depth conversations with him about the squad composition,” says New Zealand's newly appointed national coach Danny Hay to www.nzfootball.co.nz. “He (Buckingham ed.) gave me favorable comments about the players he felt did especially well at the World Cup.”
Defender Dalton Wilkins was also at the U20 World Cup in Poland, but has not been selected for the senior national team on this occasion.
Sports director Brian Gellert congratulates the young player on the selection:
– We are extremely proud that we have produced our first-ever national team player. We managed to bring in Dalton and Eli before the U20 World Cup, and we are happy to have been proven right about the two of them. “Eli” is a player we are convinced will become a major figure for us in the future, and he has an “X-factor” that you very rarely see in Denmark. Both he and Dalton are still young and have had to get used to Danish football, and Denmark in general, but they are both players with the potential for a great career.
Elijah Just joins a national team squad that also includes Marco Rojas from SønderjyskE in the Danish Superliga, as well as Danish-New Zealander Winston Read, who plays for West Ham United in the English Premier League on a daily basis.
Elijah “Eli” Just has played eight matches for FC Helsingør in the spring and scored one goal.
Photo: Claus Birch, clausbirch.dk
