Academy Defender Traveling to Turkey with U.S. Under-16s

Philadelphia Union Academy U-14 defender Rayshaun McGann is one of eighteen boys traveling with the United States Under-16 team to Manisa, Turkey for the Aegean Cup International Youth Tournament next week.

McGann, 14, is a member of the Union Academy's residency program. He joined the Academy last fall after spending the 2013-14 season with Boca United Football Club's U-13/14 team in his native Florida, the same club Union U-18 forward Sebastien Elney played with before joining the Union Academy. Prior to that, McGann played with the Wellington Wave Soccer Club in Royal Palm Beach, Florida.

McGann has appeared in seven games, starting six times for the U-14s since joining the club.

The U-16s open group play in the eight team tournament on Monday against Romania and are scheduled to face Norway on January 20 and Turkey on January 22. The top teams in each group will face each other in the championship on January 24 and the second place teams in each group will play a third-place match the same day.

Group B includes Czech Republic, France, Greece and Ukraine. Luchi Gonzalez, head coach of the FC Dallas U-16 Development Academy team and Shaun Tsakiris, head coach of De Anza Force's U-14 and U-16 team in the San Francisco Bay Area, are overseeing the squad.

Half of the players on the tournament roster were part of the U-16 camp in France in November. Union Academy defenders Andrew Aprahamian and Matthew Real, both of the U-16 team, were called into that camp but didn't receive a call-up for the Aegean Cup.

The U.S. beat France and Norway and drew against Scotland before beating Turkey in the final 2-1 to capture the Aegean Cup title in 2014.