Overseas football players with Sri Lankan roots rush in to join national team | Sunday Observer

Overseas football players with Sri Lankan roots rush in to join national team

29 November, 2020

The Sri Lanka football team will soon see a mixture of local and foreign based players with Sri Lankan roots playing for the national team.

This was the plan set by the Football Federation of Sri Lanka (FFSL) with the intention of strengthening the team that has been faring poorly in foreign tournaments in recently times. The FFSL released the names of a dozen players who will make themselves eligible to represent the Sri Lanka football team in international encounters.

Hamilton O’Mervyn who is playing for the English Non-League team Whitehawk FC has nearly completed the paper work to make him eligible. Reef Sebastian Peries the 19 year old is playing for the Academy team of Woking FC and his younger brother Ryan Peries (18) who is playing for Bournemouth University FC are on the list. Mohamed Haseef is a 27 year old player with the Engstringen FC, a third division side in the Swiss Football League. Vigneswaran Dagsan is a 16 year old who is also playing in the Swiss third division tournament.

These five players have already applied for dual citizenship and are in the process of making it into the Sri Lanka team.

Among the other names released by the FFSL are Claudio Kammerknecht who is playing in Germany for SC Freiburg II, Canistan Regnize who is in France with Sri Lankan parents, Kelly Garrett Christopher from Britain, Leon Perera from Germany, Tiffan Anthonypillai from Canada, Chikereuba Francis from Nigeria and Poopathithasan Nilooshan from Germany will make themselves available for the Sri Lanka team. They are in the process of applying for dual citizenship.

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