Comoros Islands coach Issa Ali Saifidine has named a 20-women squad for the 2020 COSAFA Women’s Under-17 Championships that will be held in South Africa’s Nelson Mandela Bay from November 4-14.

Returning are some familiar names from last year, including Mohamed Ali Moinahedji, who scored the only goal of what was a difficult campaign for the islanders in their debut last year in Mauritius.

The young squad is made up mostly of 15- and 16-year-olds, as Saifidine looks ahead to the next African qualifiers for the 2022 FIFA Women’s Under-17 World Cup.

Building a squad with international experience will be key, and so the next two COSAFA Women’s Under-17 Championships will be vital for those plans.

Indeed, Comoros have been rare participants at this age-group level in women’s football and have yet to enter the African qualifiers for the FIFA Women’s Under-17 World Cup.

That could change though as they move into a new era of competition, which started with a first ever visit to the COSAFA Women’s Under-17 Championship in 2019.

It is fair to say there will have been plenty of lessons learnt after three tough matches for the side.

They started with a 5-1 loss to fellow islanders Mauritius, before going down 15-0 to powerful Zambia. They was followed by a 20-0 defeat at the hands of eventual winners Uganda.

This year they will get to play a minimum of four matches with the five-team competition being played in a single round-robin pool, and the top two teams advancing to the final.

Comoros start their campaign against Tanzania on November 4, which is also the opening match of the tournament.

They will then take on Zimbabwe (Nov. 8), Zambia (Nov. 10) and South Africa (Nov. 12) in what will be stern tests for the squad.

All matches will be streamed live on COSAFA.TV.

Comoros squad:

Goalkeepers: Amina Ben Ali Abdou, Soilihi Naira

Defenders: Naima Kadafi, Anziz-Fazal Saratina Marize, Nilma Youssouf, Youssouf Nadjma, Hassani Ali Anfidati, Nourouzamane Ahmed

Midfielders: Saoudata Rachid Athoumane, Dalila Mohamed, Nousrat Mistoihi, Soifati Laidine, Haoudhati Said Ali, Samra Nabaouia Ibrahim, Yousrat Said Ali

Strikers: Nahida Mohamed, Chaharzad Mohamed Boinali, Mohamed Ali Moinahedji, Maissoune Darkaoui, Amina Assoumani