The Golden Eaglets will leave the shore of the country on October 8 for Sao Paolo, Brazil for the final build-up to the FIFA U17 World Cup billed for the same South American nation.
The head coach, Manu Garba who spoke to the cadet national team media officer, Francis Achi noted that 30 players will make the trip to Brazil for the closed camping exercise before the final 21 players will be selected.
Garba stated that the closed camping in Sao Paulo will afford the technical crew the golden chance to fully access all the 30 players before a decision is made on the 21 that will don Nigeria colours in Brazil.
The coach commended the UEFA/CAF tournament in Turkey and stressed that the three games they played have enabled them to notice errors that must be corrected before the start of the World Cup.
“It was very good exposure for the boys especially after the last AFCON played in April,” Garba said.
“Since April the team has not played any international match and they met very stiff competition from almost all the teams that took part in the tournament in Turkey.
“The first match was against the host Turkey and we beat them 2-0 while we also defeated Guatemala 5-1 before we lost to Senegal 4-2 in the last game despite leading 2-1 at halftime.
I must state that we have learned a lot in Turkey.
“We are supposed to leave Nigeria for Brazil on October 8 for the final part of preparations and out of the 30 picked for the trip, the final 21 players will be selected. We will try to play like two friendly games in Brazil before leaving for the World Cup.”
He added that the Senegalese which they lost to were more exposed than his players and that about eight members of the team took part at the football event of the African Games in Morocco.
“Senegal prepared better than any other team,” He added
“They had eight players that featured in the African Games. They were in France for another competition before coming to Turkey. Apart from that, we were not supposed to have lost that game to them if not to some errors noticed in the team.
“We went to Turkey to assess all the 21 players that went there and to be candid, we have been able to see the players who cannot give us what we want at the World Cup.
“We have a lot of players that we left behind here at home training with other coaches and playing friendly matches. We have our update on them.
“Before leaving for Turkey, we have identified some players that will be included to the team and they will add value.”
