It was a surprise dinner for national team players on Friday evening, as Coach Stephen Okechukwu Keshi put a call across when the team was gathered and asked to speak to the entire team through teleconference.
Assistant Coach Dan ‘The Bull’ Amokachi and Team Coordinator, Emmanuel Attah, moderated the interaction between the players and other team members including the backroom staff. Keshi, who is presently holidaying in Benin City, told the players to take instructions from his assistants, Amokachi, Houandonou Valere and Ike Shorunmu seriously and play according to instructions.
He added that he believes in the present home based squad to acquit themselves well against Cote D’ Ivoire and Sudan, adding that they should show no respect to big names, because they no longer play football but current form do. “The players you are going to play against don’t have two heads or four legs and they are not more talented than you, so you can beat them and tell them that football is not dead in Nigeria”, he said. To which the players led by Chigozie Agbim promised to do for the country.
The conversation was a sign that the team remains in the mind of the national team handler, even when he’s yet to put pen to paper for a new contract.
The national team will this Monday morning take on the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), soccer team in a test match at the Abuja National Stadium in the Federal Capital.
The game is being packaged for the team to test its readiness for the two important friendlies coming up next week in Abu Dhabi, UAE. The sports loving Director General of the NYSC, Brig. Gen Johnson Olawumi, obliged the Eagles despite the team’s tight schedule and the fact that the yuletide season just ended. The game will afford the technical crew an insight into those players that will make it to the UAE for the friendlies and the overall fitness of the team.
