Flying Eagles step up preparations

The Flying Eagles will step up their preparations for next month’s AYC qualifier with a test game against Nigeria National League (NNL) side Supreme Court of Abuja Thursday morning.

The match will be played at the Area A sports ground in Abuja and will kick off at 7am.

“Supreme Court will give us a good match as they are very much in the thick of action in the Nigeria National League,” said Flying Eagles co—ordinator Sulaiman Abubakar.

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) also plan another international friendly for the team after the matches in Morocco before the AYC first leg qualifier either in Kenya or Tanzania.

Director of competitions, Mohammed Sanusi, restated the need for the team to be better prepared when he watched the team’s training.

The Flying Eagles trained on Wednesday morning at the Abuja National Stadium practise pitch.

Meanwhile, Denis Okon Nya, who featured at last year’s FIFA U17 World Cup in Abu Dhabi, will join up with the rest of the squad this week after he underwent trials at Austrian club Red Bull Salzsburg recently.

The left back trained briefly with the squad before he jetted out to Austria.

Flying Eagles pick 12 uninvited players as Open Screening continues

Flying Eagles coach Manu Garba has picked 12 uninvited players for his next phase of training camp, while retaining 17 of
the 35 players he called up. Among the uninvited players are Amos Benjamin, Raphael Ayagwa, Samson Obagbemiro, Segun Bankole, Uche Okeke and Ogunka Adibe.

While among the invited players retained are Adamu Abubakar, Aremu Afeez, Sulaiman Abdullahi, Omaila Anthony and Timothy Danladi. Over 250 prospective players have so far attended the Flying Eagles trials, coming from all over the country.

“This shows how open the screening has been so far,” said the team’s co-ordinator Sulaiman Abubakar.

“But we are still open to give a decent chance to any player within the age bracket to come around and show us what he is
capable of.”

Europe-bound U17 striker Isaac Success was discovered from a similar open screening exercise supervised by coach Manu when
he was in charge of the Golden Eaglets.

Manu has said he plans to build a standing team of players who are based locally, while eligible foreign-based players will be
injected into the team when the need arises.

The open screening for the new Flying Eagles will enter a fifth day on Friday morning at the FIFA Technical center in Abuja.