NEWS FIFA U 20 WORLD CUP COLOMBIA 2011
Not many 20-year-olds in world football have acquired quite the same amount of experience as up-and-coming goalkeeper Luis Mejia, the man who will be captaining Panama at the FIFA U-20 World Cup Colombia 2011, set to begin on Friday 29 July.
Mejia is no stranger to FIFA World Cup™ competitions at this age level, having appeared as a tender 16-year-old at Canada 2007, where he was the undisputed first choice in the Canalero goal. Two years later he was on duty again in the qualifiers for Egypt 2009, though his team came up short, a failure they made up for this time around.
Now the second-choice keeper for the full national team, the young custodian has also made the move to Europe, continuing his education with French club Toulouse. However, as he told FIFA.com in an exclusive interview, his thoughts for now are firmly focused on Colombia 2011.
No fear
As Mejia explained, confidence is high in the Panama camp: “We’re just finishing off our preparations for Colombia. We need to work on just a couple of things but we’re on the right track and we’ll be in perfect shape for the finals.”
The Central Americans have been drawn in Group E along with Brazil, Egypt and Austria, and while Mejia has respect for all three of them, Panama will not in any way be overawed. “To be honest, we don’t know that much about Austria or Egypt, but if they’ve reached the World Cup then it must be for a reason,” he said. “We saw Brazil in the South American championship and we know they’ve got a great team. We respect all of them but we’re going to make them respect us too. We’re not scared and we’re very motivated.”
Mejia is no stranger to FIFA World Cup™ competitions at this age level, having appeared as a tender 16-year-old at Canada 2007, where he was the undisputed first choice in the Canalero goal. Two years later he was on duty again in the qualifiers for Egypt 2009, though his team came up short, a failure they made up for this time around.
Now the second-choice keeper for the full national team, the young custodian has also made the move to Europe, continuing his education with French club Toulouse. However, as he told FIFA.com in an exclusive interview, his thoughts for now are firmly focused on Colombia 2011.
No fear
As Mejia explained, confidence is high in the Panama camp: “We’re just finishing off our preparations for Colombia. We need to work on just a couple of things but we’re on the right track and we’ll be in perfect shape for the finals.”
The Central Americans have been drawn in Group E along with Brazil, Egypt and Austria, and while Mejia has respect for all three of them, Panama will not in any way be overawed. “To be honest, we don’t know that much about Austria or Egypt, but if they’ve reached the World Cup then it must be for a reason,” he said. “We saw Brazil in the South American championship and we know they’ve got a great team. We respect all of them but we’re going to make them respect us too. We’re not scared and we’re very motivated.”
