"How I Will Select Flying Eagles' Final 18-man List For All African Games" - Bosso

"How I Will Select Flying Eagles' Final 18-man List For All African Games" - Bosso

By Niyi Busari

Flying Eagles Head Coach, Ladan Bosso has concluded his plans on the final 18-man list that will represent Nigeria at the 2023 All African Games, BSNSports.com.ng reports.

Bosso who spoke with www.bsnsports.com.ng after Flying Eagles training session at the Moshood Abiola Stadium, Abuja on Monday confirmed that the competition will be used to prepare the boys for the 2024 West African Football Union (WAFU B) U20 championship coming up in May, 2024.

"There is no time for us for screening of players because we are supposed to leave for Ghana by 1st March, 2024. We have less than two weeks to prepare. " Bosso began.

He continued, "Before now, I was contacted to submit 70-man list for this competition through Technical Department for onward submission to CAF. And after the list has been scrutinised by those saddled with the responsibility, it was trimmed down to 47, which was sent to CAF.

"This means that we are not here for open screening again, the final 18 players that will represent Nigeria at the competition are from the 47-man list. 

"We want to use this All African Games team to prepare the Flying Eagles for WAFU coming up in May.

The players in the 30-man list that have resumed training will be trimmed down to create space for invitation of some of the remaining 17. This will help us select the best legs from the submitted list.

"In selecting the final 18, we have six eligible players from the Flying Eagles team at the FIFA U20 World Cup last year, we will select another six from the Nduka Ugbade led Golden Eaglets which many clamoured for invitation of some of the good players for development. Then another six players from the Nigeria Leagues will complete my 18-man squad for the 2024 All African Games in Ghana.

Eight teams will compete at the 2023 All African Games, the eight teams are; hosts Ghana, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania and Uganda. Nigeria will take on Uganda on 8th March, 2024.

The African Games Accra 2023 will take place from 8-24 March 2024 in the Ghanaian capital, Accra.

Burkina Faso and Nigeria claimed gold in the men’s and women’s event respectively at the last edition of the continental multisport event held in 2019 in Rabat, Morocco.