29 Professionals Participating In African Youth Championship

According to the official website of Confederation of African Football, 29 professional footballers are participating at the African Youth Championship which began in Algeria on Saturday and will run till March 30.

Defending champions, the Flying Eagles have four oversea based players in their roster - Aigbe Oliha (Esperance, Tunisia), Kayode Olarenwaju (Ansfed United, Turkey), Edafe Egbedi (AGF, Denmark) and Mohammed Aliyu (Tavriya, Ukraine).

Nigeria's group opponents Mali, Gabon and DR Congo have three professionals listed for the tournament.  Three Nigerian players participated at the last edition in South Africa - Kayode Olarenwaju, Edafe Egbedi and Abduljeleel Ajagu.

Speaking ahead of the Flying Eagles opening match in the competition against Mali, coach John Obuh told the official website of CAF: '' We respect every team here and for our first game, we expect a tough match against Mali who always have strong teams especially at youth level.

''Mali is always there or thereabout in such competitions and we have to play well to win but l am confident of my team and having done as much as a coach can, all that is left is for  the good fortune from God that you always need to do well in football.''