Chief Coach of the national U-20 team, the Flying Eagles, Manu Garba, has said the invitation extended to nine foreign-based professionals to the team is a good development.
Garba and his technical crew had invited Kelechi Iheanacho and Isaac Success, among others ahead of next year’s African Youth Championship (AYC) billed to hold in Senegal.
While Iheanacho is on the books of English Premier League champions, Manchester City, Success has already broken into the first team of Granada CF in the Spanish La Liga.
The other invited pros are Chidiebere Nwakali (Manchester City, England), Taiwo Awoniyi (Kalmar, Sweden), Chidera Eze (FC Porto, Portugal), Daddy Moses, Kingsley Madu (AS Trencin, Slovakia), Musa Yahaya (Tottenham Hotspur, England) and Musa Muhammed.
He said: “The players are very young and talented, and they would make an impact in the team during the AYC in Senegal.
“The invitation extended to them is a good development and I hope they would make good use of the opportunity given to them to showcase their talents once more.”
According to Garba, the players are expected to join the other home-based players when the team’s training camp re-opens in Kaduna on December 27.
Garba said he has received assurances for the release of the players by their clubs.
He said he wants the team to qualify for the 2015 FIFA U-20 World Cup in New Zealand as African champions.
“The target for the team is to win the AYC and so qualify for the World Cup in New Zealand as the best team in Africa.
“We want to be champions again and we want to do this in style. We know it won’t be easy, but we are working very hard to achieve this target,” he said.
Meanwhile, the draw for the AYC will be conducted today, December 21, at the Confederation of African Football (CAF) headquarters in Cairo, Egypt.
Hosts, Senegal will be seeded to top Group A of the championship, which will kick off on March 8, 2015 in Dakar with the final slated for March 22.
Nigeria’s Flying Eagles, who had won the U-20 continental competition a record six times, will be one of the eight finalists.
The team defeated Tanzania and walked over Lesotho to qualify for the tournament, finishing third at the last tournament hosted by Algeria.
Defending champions, Egypt, will not be at Senegal 2015 after they were eliminated by Congo Brazzaville.
Other finalists are Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Mali, South Africa and Zambia.
The eight-team tournament will produce Africa’s four representatives to the 2015 FIFA U-20 World Cup in New Zealand from May 30 to June 20.
The draw for the World Cup will be done on February 10, 2015.
