FOOTBALL – FRIENDLY – A big dilemma in the goals

Two new goalkeepers among the five new recruits. Barea coach Romuald Rakotondrabe has called on two new goalkeepers among the twenty-two expatriates of the thirty-three preselected for the next two friendly matches against Burundi and Rwanda, on March 22 and 25.

Coach Rôrô expressed his concerns regarding the goalkeeper compartment following the injury to Zakanirina Rakotoasimbola during the Island Games in September 2023, then that of Melvin Adrien in December. Nina no longer played for the selection during the last two days of the African Cup of Nations and the first two days of the qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup. Nina returned to competition since the beginning of January during the Grand Tournament in Antananarivo , then during the final phase of the Madagascar Cup where he was elected best player and his club crowned winner of the cup, for the second consecutive season. He is currently playing in the conference phase of the Pure Play Football League which is in its fourth day. His club, Elgeco Plus, is the provisional leader of his conference. Nina has a bronze medal in Chan, and was voted best goalkeeper during the last two seasons of the OPL, with AS Adema in 2021 and in the jersey of the By Pass team in 2022 .

Full-scale test

Football fans can’t wait to see the two new expatriate goalkeepers on the field. The coach and his staff made a good choice in terms of size for these two new binational recruits. If Nina is 23 years old and 1.93m tall, the two expatriates are even taller than him. Sonny Brass Patrick Arotiana from AJ Auxerre is 24 years old and measures 1.98m. His club plays in Ligue 2 and occupies first place after the 28th day. He has already played in the French youth team in the U16 (2016), U17 (2017), U19 (2018) and U20 (2019) selections. He played for several clubs in Reunion before joining AJ Auxerre.

Teva Gardies, on the other hand, is 22 years old and measures 1.97m. He plays for Paris FC, in Ligue 2, provisionally ranked 9th. He played for FC Sète in National 1 in 2020, after playing for AS Béziers and AS Porto Vecchio. The two friendly matches at the end of March will serve as a life-size test for these two new goalkeepers, as well as for the other new recruits.

Serge Rasanda