The coach of the Nigeria U20 team Ladan Bosso on Saturday made public the list of players who will be in camp for the final phase of preparation for the U20 Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt.
35 players will begin training today in Abuja with around ten players based abroad also expected to join the team next week before the announcement of the final list of 26 players for the tournament which starts in February.
Bosso’s list dominated discussions with many wondering about the huge number of players picked from football academies as against those picked from professional teams, that is teams playing in the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL), Nigeria National League (NNL) and the Nigeria League One (NLO).
Speaking on the reason, a backroom staff of the team told OwnGoalNigeria.com on the condition of anonymity that most of the players from the professional teams had faulty documents while some were found out to be above the age. Around six of them were also sent packing for having dual passports with different ages.
He said it’s why some of the players picked from teams in the leagues were screened out in the first phase of camping despite their impressive performance. The idea according to our source is not to win at all cost but to build a team that will in the future serve Nigeria at various levels.
The head coach of the team is particular about documentation as they were saved by a stroke of faith regarding one player, who was dropped on the eve of the WAFU tournament following a tip off by his former agent. If he had played , Nigeria would have been disqualified.
