Liam Jordan has had a great spring for FC Helsingør and was recently rewarded with a contract extension. Now the speedy attacker has received yet another stroke of luck, as he has been selected for the South African Olympic national team squad, which will play a training tournament in the United Arab Emirates as preparation for the Olympics in Japan.
During the tournament, the South Africans will face Brazil, South Korea and Argentina. The tournament will be played from 5 to 13 June.
In addition to Liam Jordan’s selection, FCH has two other players selected for national teams, as Elijah Just and Callum McCowatt have both been provisionally selected for New Zealand’s preliminary Olympic squad, with the final squad to be announced on 18 July.
Liam Jordan is rested for today’s match against Esbjerg due to a knock from the last match, but feels fully ready for the national team:
– It is a huge honour to represent your country. I am grateful that the national team coaches have followed me and chosen me as part of a strong national team squad. I am looking forward to being part of the team again. I am happy that they have followed me since I moved to FC Helsingør, and hopefully seen that I have developed over the past year, where I feel I have developed and become more mature, both as a footballer and off the pitch. I also look forward to representing the club in the national team and showing that if you believe in it and work for it, you do not have to play at the very highest level to be considered. It will be a great experience.
Sporting director Brian Gellert is proud of the selections:
– It fits enormously well with our strategy that we have some really good young boys who can develop and be interesting for their national teams. It also says something about the kind of football we play and the environment we have created, that we can find and develop national team players in Helsingør.
– We are very much looking forward to seeing the three of them perform on the biggest stage at the Olympics. I don’t think people quite realise how big this is for the entire city of Helsingør, that we will now be represented at one of football’s most traditional tournaments, and the world’s biggest sporting event. The Olympics is a place where some of football’s biggest stars got their first breakthrough. One could, for example, mention players like Jay-Jay Okocha and Kanu for Nigeria, or Marcherano and Carlos Tevez for Argentina. That is where we are.
Photo: Claus Birch, clausbirch.dk
