Madagascar: FOOTBALL – FRIENDLIES – A major goalkeeping dilemma

Two new goalkeepers among the five new recruits. The coach of the Barea, Romuald Rakotondrabe, has called up two new goalkeepers out of the twenty-two expatriates from the thirty-three pre-selected for the two upcoming friendly matches against Burundi and Rwanda, on March 22 and 25.

Coach Rôrô expressed his concerns about the goalkeeping department following the injury of Zakanirina Rakotoasimbola during the Indian Ocean Island Games in September 2023, followed by that of Melvin Adrien in December. Nina has not played for the national team in the last two days of the Africa Cup of Nations and the first two days of the qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup. Nina returned to competition since early January at the Grand tournament of Antananarivo, then at the final phase of the Madagascar Cup where he was elected the 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. Nina has in his record the bronze medal at the Chan, and was voted best goalkeeper in the last two seasons of the OPL, with AS Adema in 2021 and under the jersey of the By Pass team in 2022.

Real-life Test

Football fans are eager 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 dual-national recruits. If Nina is 23 years old and measures 1.93m, the two expatriates are even taller than him. Sonny Laiton Patrick Arotiana from AJ Auxerre is 24 years old and measures 1.98m. His club plays in Ligue 2 and occupies the first place after the 28th round. He has already played for the French national youth teams in the U16 (2016), U17 (2017), U19 (2018), and U20 (2019) selections. He played for several clubs in La Réunion 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, 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 real-life test for these two new goalkeepers, as well as for the other new recruits.

Serge Rasanda