14th April, 2014
Taiwo Adelu
As Coach of the Super Eagles, Stephen Keshi gets set to unveil the list of players he will invite for the week-long preparation for the Brazil 2014 FIFA World Cup, he wants Nigerians to know that there will be surprises in the list.
Keshi said he had been monitoring Nigerian players plying their trade both at home and abroad and this has given him confidence that all of them are good to play for their fatherland, but he had painstakingly pencilled down the best among them that will make the list which the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, will make public any time from now.
According to the former Nigerian international, who not only won the Africa Cup of Nations for the country after a 19-year drought, but also qualified the Eagles for their fifth appearance in FIFA World Cup, “there will be surprises in the list because I’m going to include some names on the list and I want to say that there will be few inclusion of players who had not been invited to the national team before in the list.”
Meanwhile, the NFF has re-affirmed that there has been no changes to what has been streamed to the public previously as the Eagles’ schedule leading to the 20th FIFA World Cup finals in Brazil. Spokesman of the NFF, Ademola Olajire at the weekend said that there is no truth in what has been circulating around that the football house has altered the pre-tournament programme of the Nigerian team for the World Cup.
Olajire said: “We have heard people talking about cancellation of the friendly with the senior team of USA. Sincerely, we don’t know where that is coming from. For the avoidance of doubt, the NFF and its Official FIFA Match Agent, Jairo Pachon of Eurodata Sport hereby re-confirm that the Super Eagles will regroup in London on Saturday, 25 May, play Scotland at the Craven Cottage ground of English Premier League side Fulham FC on Tuesday, 28 May and fly to the USA on Wednesday, 29 May.
“The African champions will play the senior team of Greece at the Philadelphia Union Stadium on 3 June and then take on Team USA at the EverBank Field Stadium in Jacksonville on 7 June, before flying to Sao Paulo on 11 June.”