[Albion] Albion academy U15 player Cristiano Anah called up to Italy U16 squad

[AZ Gull]

Many congratulations to Cristiano Ekene Anah, an U-15 player in Albion's academy, who has been called up to the Italy U-16 squad for the UEFA development tournament at the Pinatar Arena in Spain which commences later this week.

I don't know a whole lot about Cristiano - I first heard of him when he was a member of the Albion mainly U-16 squad that competed at the SuperCupNI in Northern Ireland for the first time in July. Not sure how long he has been in the academy, or what his football background was previously. He is also a sprinter who is a member of the Crawley Athletic Club and set an U-15 Sussex League record for the 100m (in a time of 11.3 seconds) at an U-15 Sussex League meeting at Withdean on July 14 last year.

He could come face to face with his academy colleagues on Friday as Italy take on England, who have Harry Howell and Freddie Simmonds in their squad.

Anyway, to paraphrase a chant from many years ago, we (potentially) have an Italian (U-16) inter-nat-ional!

 

[cjd]

Thankyou for that Info. Always good to see something about Brighton and Hove Albion FC on this Mumsnet football forum.

 

[HastingsSeagull]

Always interested in your youth updates especially when is a player I've not heard about. What position does he play? (Yes I'm sure could google but others might be interested too)

 

[AZ Gull]

Always interested in your youth updates especially when is a player I've not heard about. What position does he play? (Yes I'm sure could google but others might be interested too)

Google?

Just how much info do you think there is out there on Albion U-15 academy players?

If you google "cristiano anah italy" the top two links are this thread

Anyway, as per the announcement on the Italian FA website, he is a defender.

 

[AZ Gull]

Well, it transpires that the Nigerian squad were denied visas by the Spanish embassy (for reasons unknown) and so they will not be travelling for this tournament:-



The new schedule (with each team now only playing two matches):-

 

[AZ Gull]

Always interested in your youth updates especially when is a player I've not heard about. What position does he play? (Yes I'm sure could google but others might be interested too)

As per @TheSecretScout on twitter, Cristiano is a left-back.

And as per this tweet, he was identified by Chelsea a few years ago but they didn't act on it:-