Western United stars Alana Cerne and Kahli Johnson will fly the Green and Black flag with the Australia Women’s Under-23 national team in Sweden later this month.
Their respective selections continue a period of great success for both players with Cerne winning Western United’s A-League Women Young Player of the Season award last week, while Johnson took out the Goal of the Season honour, as voted by the fans.
Both players will return to the Under-23 environment for the first time since September last year where they faced AC Milan and Scotland Under-23’s in Italy.
Johnson has remained a permanent fixture in the Young Matildas squad, most recently helping that side achieve a third-placed finish at the AFC U20 Women’s Asian Cup.
Western United General Manager of Football Mal Impiombato spoke of his pride at having both Cerne and Johnson as young leaders in the Club’s women’s program.
“We are thrilled for Alana and Kahli to have another opportunity to represent their country and we look forward to watching their progress,” he said.
“As two of our brightest young talents, we are increasingly proud to be able to nurture these individuals as footballers and as people to achieve success on an international scale. We look forward to their continued progression, and that of many other members of our squad as well.”
The pair will join up with the squad for the Four Nations Tournament in Sweden with matches against quality opposition in store.
Cerne and Johnson will face off against the Under-23 women’s national teams of Sweden, Germany and Poland over a week of matches in the Swedish town of Vӓxjӧ.
It was a breakout season in the Liberty A-League Women for Cerne who played every single minute of every game this season and scored her first senior goal in the Elimination Final against Newcastle Jets.
Johnson’s domestic campaign was interrupted by injuries and by international involvement but it was another one where big strides were taken, with the attacker scoring three goals in total.
