Huon Lickley Tokyo Youth International

Huon has just been selected in a under 14s football team invited to play  a tournament in Tokyo starting on the 2nd May and concluding on the 7th. 16 players have been selected with 12 from Newcastle, two from Far North NSW ,  one from Northern Inland (Tamworth ) and Huon from Port Macquarie (FMNC).

Huon started playing football (soccer) at the age of 5 here in Port Macquarie for a local club Port Saints , just as his three older brothers had before him. Come April his younger brother too, will roll out for the under 7's wearing the Saints colours.

Huon progressed to playing for our district club Football Mid North Coast (FMNC) in 2016  and the represented Northern NSW at the National Titles in 2018. He still plays with his mates for the U 14s  FMNC National Premier League (NPL) team that travels Home and Away versing  Newcastle NPL clubs on a weekly basis. The 2019 season kicks off Sunday  3/3/19 with FMNC versing Adamstown Rosebuds.

We have started this page in the hope of getting his story out there and the possibility of gaining some sponsorship. If you are able to support Huon in any way to help us get him there, we would greatly appreciate it. If you run a business we would be pleased to provide you with a Certificate of Appreciation for your support at the very least.

Thanks for reading this far! and thank you for any assistance you may be able to contribute.

Details on the tournament are below via a media release from Northern New South Wales Football: 

Northern NSW  Players selected for Tokyo International Tournament
February 25th, 2019

Sixteen players from Northern NSW have been selected to participate in the Tokyo Under-14 International Youth Football Tournament commencing May 2nd, 2019.

Huon Lickley is the only player selected from the Mid North Coast.

The squad consists of players from throughout the region and was selected on performances displayed at the NNSWF Talent ID Camp held at the Lake Macquarie Regional Football Facility in January.

The side will be attending the tournament at the invitation of the Tokyo Government, who extended the invite to the NSW State Government.

Northern NSW Football Technical Advisor, Leo Bertos, who will be travelling along with the boys, believes this will be a valuable opportunity for the players.

“The Tokyo International Tournament will provide the players with the opportunity to test themselves against quality players and teams from many different environments from other parts of the world,” Bertos said.

“Many of the participating teams will have different approaches to playing the game and we are sure that this experience alone will be of enormous benefit to our players.

“The tournament will be extremely competitive as a number of professional clubs have been invited to attend. Last year we had the opportunity to play against FC Tokyo and the tournament winners Palmeiras which were both very difficult games yet fantastic experiences for the players.

“I am interested to see how the players we have selected manage to not only perform against a high level of opposition, but to also see individually how players manage themselves both on and off the field so that they can perform at their best for the heavy schedule of matches,” Bertos concluded.

The Northern NSW players will compete alongside International squads from Beijing, Berlin, Cairo, Jakarta, Moscow, Paris, Sao Paulo, Seoul, Buenos Aires and local Japanese teams at Tokyo’s Komazawa Olympic General Sports Ground.