The Namibia Football Association (NFA) on Thursday announced a 43-player provisional squad for the 2026 U20 Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (COSAFA) Championship scheduled for Sept. 18 to 29.
The squad announcement comes immediately after Wednesday’s official tournament draw in South Africa, which placed Namibia in Group A alongside host nation Mauritius, Seychelles, and Mozambique.
NFA Youth Development Officer Hennie Kavendjii said in a statement that the camp will focus on enhancing the players’ technical understanding while assessing their performance and adaptability.
“We selected players who performed well at the Nedbank Newspaper Cup, which was held in April. The FA also looked at players who participated in the 2025 edition of the Region Five and are still eligible to play, as well as a few players from the Westphalia team,” Kavendjii said.
In addition to locally based players, the technical team is also assessing foreign-based players plying their trade in Spain, South Africa, Belgium, England and Australia.
The first camping session will take place from 24 to 28 August in Windhoek, where the technical team will assess the players and select the final 25-man squad that will travel to Mauritius for the tournament.
The stakes will be particularly high, with the COSAFA U20 champions and runners-up earning qualification to the TotalEnergies CAF U-20 Africa Cup of Nations, scheduled to take place in Ghana in 2027. Ghana was awarded the hosting rights for the youth continental tournament by CAF in April, with the competition set to coincide with the country’s 70th anniversary of independence.
