AFCON: Super Eagles hit Abuja camp today

The Super Eagles will today hit Abuja camp ahead of the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON).

The tournament is scheduled to be hosted by Cameroon and will take place from January 9 to February 6, 2022.

• AFCON: I don’t sleep because of Nigerians’ expectations — Eguavoen
• AFCON: Players can stay with clubs until 3 January – FIFA

The Bolton White Apartments camp will open with a total of 20 players out of the named 28-man squad reporting with the other eight based in England or Scotland expected to hit camp between January 3rd and 4th, 2022.

The players in the 28-man list are from 14 different football leagues and dominated by players from the Premier League in England; followed by Spain, though three of the four from Spain play in the second tier.

Most of the English clubs as well as Scottish sides parading key African players are reluctant to release them from travelling to Africa for the tournament.

The clubs cited the rise of the Omicron variant of the Coronavirus as a reason for their reservations.

There were futile moves made by the European clubs which tried to influence world governing body, FIFA, to have the 33rd edition of the fiesta cancelled.

However, the Confederation of African Football president, Patrice Motsepe, few days ago confirmed that the tournament would go on as planned.

Enyimba goalkeeper, John Noble, South Africa-based pair of Daniel Akpeyi and Olisa Ndah as well as Odion Ighalo from Saudi Arabia are expected to be the early birds in.

But most of the 28 players picked for the tournament are now expected to be released by their European clubs much closer to the team’s departure to Cameroon.

Rangers FC stars – Joe Aribo and Leon Balogun, Zaidu Sanusi from FC Porto and Wilfred Ndidi and Kelechi Iheanacho are due to join up by January 3.

Meanwhile, Watford FC attacker, Emmanuel Dennis, has said he’s proud to represent Nigeria in the upcoming 2021 African Cup of Nations in Cameroon.

The former Club Brugge of Belgium winger was among the 28 players listed by the interim coach of the Super Eagles, Austin Eguavoen, for the competition.

Dennis made his debut for Super Eagles in an international friendly against Selecao of Brazil in Singapore.