Newcastle United defender David Edgar and Ipswich Town midfielder Jaime Peters were two of the marquee players named to Canada's roster Thursday for this summer's FIFA U-20 World Cup.

Canadian coach Dale Mitchell named 21 players to his squad for the U-20 World Cup, a three-week tournament featuring the best youth players in the world that kicks off June 30 in Canada.

American Julian Valentin (14) and Canadian Andrea Lombardo battle for position on the ball during the second half of an Under-20 men's soccer friendly match June 3 in Ottawa.
(Frank Gunn/Canadian Press)

"I think we're going to lean on them pretty heavily," said Mitchell. "They've got the experience, they've been through this before and it's important for them to play well and be leaders within the group, and we're confident that they're going to do that."

Others named to the Canadian squad were forwards Andrea Lombardo (Toronto FC) and Will Johnson (Heerenveen), goalkeeper Asmir Begovic (Portsmouth) and midfielder Jonathan Beaulieu-Bourgault (FC St. Pauli).

"I like the squad," Mitchell said. "All of those boys deserve it."

All six players represented Canada at the 2005 tournament in the Netherlands. Canada bowed out of the first round of that tournament after reaching the quarter-finals at the 2003 competition in the United Arab Emirates.

"The thing that stood out for me is I've seen pretty much all of those guys play a good international game and be involved in a good win against quality opponents at some point in the last year or so," he said.

"You're hopeful they'll be able to do that, when it matters the most in the tournament."

In total, Canada has participated in seven U-20 World Cups, which was known as the FIFA World Youth Championship from 1977-2005.

With more than 750,000 spectator tickets sold, the FIFA U-20 World Cup will be one of the largest single-sports events in Canadian history.

The tournament runs from June 30 to July 22 in six Canadian cities — Victoria, Burnaby, Edmonton, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal — and features 24 teams from around the world divided into six round-robin groups.

The top two teams in each group, and the top four third-place teams overall, advance to the second round.

Canada, which is in Group A with Chile, Austria and Congo, will play its first-round games in Toronto and Edmonton.

The U-20 World Cup is the second-largest event staged by FIFA, soccer's world governing body, after the men's World Cup.

The tournament — the soccer equivalent of the world junior hockey championship — has launched the careers of some of the sport's biggest names, including Diego Maradona, Michael Owen and Luis Figo.

TEAM CANADA ROSTER:

Goalkeepers: Asmir Begovic, David Monsalve, Zach Kalthoff.

Defenders: Nana Attakora-Gyan, Kent O'Connor, David Edgar, Marcus Haber, Stephen Lumley, Kennedy Owusu-Ansah, Olivier Lacoste-Lebuis.

Midfielders: Jonathan Beaulieu-Bourgault, Jaime Peters, Keegan Ayre, Cristian Nunez, Gabe Gala, Michael D'Agostino, Simeon Jackson.

Forwards: Andrea Lombardo, Will Johnson, Tosaint Ricketts, Alex Elliott.

With files from the Canadian Press