Norwich City striker Sebastian Soto is in contention to feature at this summer's Olympic Games after being named in the 48-man preliminary qualifying squad for the United States.

The young striker is one of 11 forwards to be selected as preparations for the games based in Tokyo later this year continue. The USA begin their qualifying campaign in March in the North and Central America and the Caribbean section.

Eight teams will compete for two places during the final qualifying tournament, which will be played in the region of Guadalajara, Mexico between March 18 and 30.

The US have failed to qualify for the last two Olympics in London and Rio and will be hoping to compete in the games scheduled to begin in July. Their CONCACAF group begins with a game against Costa Rica on March 18.

They will then face the Dominican Republic on March 21 and complete Group A on March 24 against hosts Mexico. The top two sides in the group progress, with the winners of the semi-final qualifying for the games.

Clubs are under no obligation to release their players for the qualifiers and 20-man squads are expected to be announced on March 8. Only players born after January 1, 1997, are eligible to play, although nations are permitted to name three overage players in their squad.

The CONCACAF qualifiers will join Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Egypt, France, Germany, Ivory Coast, Japan, New Zealand, Romania, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea and Spain.

USA 48-man squad:

Goalkeepers: Drake Callender (Miami), Matt Freese (Philadelphia), Jonathan Klinsmann (LA Galaxy), JT Marcinkowski (San Jose), David Ochoa (Salt Lake), Brady Scott (Austin)

Defenders: Julian Araujo (LA Galaxy), George Bello (Atlanta), Kyle Duncan (New York Red Bulls), Marco Farfan (LA), Justen Glad (Salt Lake), Chris Gloster (PSV Einhoven, Netherlands), Aaron Herrera (Salt Lake), Aboubacar Keita (Columbus), Fredrick Kessler (New England), Maurico Pineda (Chicago), Donovan Pines (D.C.), Bryan Reynolds (Roma, Italy), Miles Robinson (Atlanta), James Sands (New York City), Auston Trusty (Colorado), Sam Vines (Colorado)

Midfielders: Brenden Aaronson (Red Bull Salzburg, Austria), Efrain Álvarez (LA Galaxy), Cole Bassett (Colorado), Gianluca Busio (Kansas City), Caden Clark (New York Red Bulls), Johnny Cardoso (Internacionale, Brazil), Hassani Dotson (Minnesota), Brooks Lennon (Atlanta), Djordje Mihailovic (Chicago), Keaton Parks (New York City), Andres Perea (Orlando), Brandon Servania (Dallas), Tanner Tessmann (Dallas), Eryk Williamson (Portland), Jackson Yueill (San Jose)

Forwards: Frankie Amaya (Cincinnati), Cade Cowell (San Jose), Konrad De La Fuente (Barcelona), Jeremy Ebobisse (Portland), Jesus Ferreira (Dallas), Jonathan Lewis (Colorado), Ulysses Llanez (Wolfsburg), Benji Michel (Orlando), Ricardo Pepi (Dallas), Sebastian Saucedo (Pumas, Mexico), Sebastian Soto (Norwich)