Nigeria U20s To Call Up Players From Academies & NNL, Foreign Pros For Camping

Abubakar Bala, who is standing in for  Nigeria U20 Head Coach Paul Aigbogun, has revealed that the Flying Eagles’ preparation for the Africa U-20 Cup of Nations qualifiers will be in three phases.

22 out of the 30 players invited for this first phase of camping are currently sweating it out in Abuja for a chance to represent Nigeria.

''We have penciled down 15 players but we want to make the screening in phases,'' Bala told allnigeriasoccer.com.

''We are making the screening in three phases. The first phase will be 30 players of only the Premier League teams

''The second phase we are bringing another 28 players from National League, Academies and amateur players then the last phase after selecting the Premier League players and selecting the few we get from the amateur and Academy players to form the core team.

''We will see where we are lacking and from there we invite our European players that are within the age of twenty.''

Nigeria will face either Guinea Bissau or Sierra Leone in the second round of the 2019 Africa U20 Cup of Nations qualifiers, with the first leg to be played on 11-13 May and the second leg a week later.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel