The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has finalized arrangement for
the Golden Eaglets to resume their closed camping in Calabar next week
after concluding the two-week screening exercise of new players at the
NFF/FIFA Goal Project Center in Abuja on Friday.
Senator Liyel Imoke, the Executive Governor of Cross River State,
last week sanctioned the return of the Golden Eaglets to Calabar to fine
tune their preparations for the forthcoming 2013 FIFA World Cup in the
United Arab Emirates as the NFF is leaving no stone unturned in the
quest for the team’s successful outing.
Eaglets vs Ivory Coast during the group matches
Tayo Egbaiyelo, the Golden Eaglets’ Team Secretary, informed that a
pool of players from the squad that nearly conquered the continent at
the 10th African Under-17 Champion-ship in April with their counterparts
picked from the screening exercise and officials are due in Calabar on
Monday, July 22 to continue their build-up for the championship to be
held between October 17 to November 8.
In a related development, members of the Golden Eaglets’ crew are
enthusiastic about building a formidable squad that would make Nigerians
proud at the 2013 World Cup following a well successful screening
exercise.
Coach Siji Lagungu, Technical Officer at the NFF who is charged with
the responsibility of organizing the screening, said he was happy with
the quality of players spotted since it would boost competition for
shirts amongst the players.
“ I’m happy with what we have been able to do within the last few
days since the coaches were able to pick some players that are capable
of adding values to the team we already have on ground,” said the former
Nigerian international who was famous for his dazzling wing play in his
heydays. “At this level, there is no limit to the amount of players you
can have a look at until the final team is picked and this would help
the coaches to have a strong pool of players for the task ahead.”
Assistant Coach Nduka Ugbade equally expressed the same opinion,
saying the screening exercise has been a huge success: “I’m really
impressed with what have seen so far at the screening and there is no
doubt that some of these players can help the cause of our team at the
World Cup,” added the Golden Eaglets’ assistant coach who incidentally
captained Nigeria to win the maiden edition of the FIFA Under-16 World
Cup in 1985 in China.
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