Profile of Indonesian FIFA U-17 World Cup Participants: Burkina Faso, Give Me Five

The Burkina Faso U-17 national team ready to give a surprise. (FIFA)

JAKARTA - Burkina Faso, one of Africa's representatives at the 2023 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Indonesia. Burkina Faso's senior national team had not been heard from for a long time. However, their junior team has appeared for the fifth time in the U-17 tournament.

Burkina Faso football is less popular than France, the United States and even South Korea. However, The Little Stallions are ready to give a surprise in the Group E qualifying which will be held at the Jakarta International Stadium (JIS).

The Burkina Faso U-17 national team finished third in the 2023 U-17 Africa Cup of Nations. The results enabled them to participate in the FIFA U-17 World Cup for the fifth time.

In Group E, Burkina Faso will start the fight by facing France on 12 November 2023. In the next match, on 15 November 2023, they will meet the United States and finally on 18 November 2023 they will meet South Korea.

Burkina Faso started the 2023 U-17 Africa Cup of Nations with a less than stellar start, after being beaten by Mali.

However, Burkina Faso managed to come from behind in the deciding group stage match to qualify for the knockout phase. However, they succeeded in beating Nigeria 2-1 to reach the semi-finals and secure tickets to the U-17 World Cup.

Burkano Faso's journey in the Africa Cup ended in the last four or semifinals, after losing on penalties to Senegal. However, they still qualified because they were in the top four.

When they set foot in Indonesia and appeared for the fifth time at the U-17 World Cup, they carried a mission to achieve the best results. The Burkina Faso U-17 national team is led by coach Brahima Traore, a figure who is known to be very ambitious.

However, he did prove his performance by bringing his team through to the final round of the U-17 tournament for the first time in the last 12 years.

This is what immediately boosted his prestige. Traore is known as a careful tactician and is able to continuously develop the team's conditions, to adapt to opponents.

Traore is quite skilled at implementing a possession-based game with an aggressive pressing game. And this strategy will be proven for Burkina Faso at the 2023 Indonesian U-17 World Pilada.

In terms of players, Burkina Faso has Souleymane Alio, a player who was named the best player at the U-17 Africa Cup of Nations.

Alio is a striker who usually plays with surprises. His abilities were visible at a young age.

Alio started his career as a right winger who played with speed. He is also known to have above average ball control skills. In the national team, Alio was placed as an attacking midfielder to be the axis of the team's attack.

Indonesia's 2023 FIFA U-17 World Cup will be Burkina Faso's fifth appearance. The best performance was recorded in 2001, when unexpectedly, Wilfried Sanou managed to lead Burkina Faso to win a bronze medal in Trinidad and Tobago.

At the 2001 event, Burkina Faso successfully defeated football giants Spain and Argentina. Burkina Faso became a dark horse and won third place in the 2001 U-17 World Cup.