The Nigeria U-20 men’s team, the Flying Eagles, are in the final stages of their preparations for the 2024 WAFU Zone B U-20 Championship, which begins today (Thursday) in Lome, Togo.
Providing an update from the camp, media officer Sharif Abdallah reported that the team, having arrived in Lome on Tuesday, held their first training session on Wednesday morning at the Omnisport Mini Stadium. The session lasted for an hour and a half, with all 20 players participating. A second session is scheduled for Thursday, as the team fine-tunes its strategies ahead of their opening match against Burkina Faso on Friday.
Earlier, Coach Aliyu Zubair announced the final squad of 20 players that will represent Nigeria at the championship, which also serves as a qualification pathway for the 2025 Africa U20 Cup of Nations. The squad, along with 12 officials, arrived in Lome after a week of intensive training at the Remo Stars Training Complex in Ikenne, Ogun State.
Hon. Kunle Soname, proprietor of the Remo Stars Training Complex and president of the Nigeria Premier Football League club, Remo Stars, has offered the Flying Eagles a cash reward of N5 million if they successfully defend their title in Togo. Additionally, he gave the team N1 million before their departure on Monday.
The Flying Eagles are the defending champions, having won the previous edition of the tournament in Niamey, Niger Republic. In this year’s competition, they will face Burkina Faso on Friday and later meet Cote d’Ivoire in a three-team Group B. The top two teams from the group will advance to the semi-finals, bringing Nigeria one step closer to retaining their crown.
