Flying Eagles Begin Training

The Nigeria U-20 men’s team, Flying Eagles, who flew out of Lagos Wednesday to Qatar, will today commence their final prepatations for the 17th FIFA U-20 World Cup finals coming up in Egypt September/October this year.

Head Coach Samson Siasia and his assistant Sunildat Kalika led a group of 20 players to Qatar. The team will train at the world –renowned Aspire Academy for Sports Excellence for 10 days before traveling to Egypt for a four –nation invitational tourney.

The delegation was led by NFF Technical Committee member, Barrister Godwin Dudu-Orumen.

Aspire’s Director of Sports, Dr. Andreas Bleicher, said that the Flying Eagles, runners up at the global championship in 1989 and 2005, will train on a brand new pitch that has just been completed inside the Aspire Zone. Siasia’s boys will be the first team to use the turf.

Originally, 30 players were proposed by Siasia but some of them, particularly the foreign–based stars, failed to submit information page of their international passports early enough for the Qatar Ministry of Interior to issue them entry visa. Some of them will be able to join the team in a few days.

The Nigeria team will be in Qatar until 18 July, when they will depart for Cairo for a four–nation invitational tournament that will also involve the World Cup hosts.

The players will go on break before the friendly international with African champions Ghana billed for Accra in August.