Wilfred Ndidi will captain the Flying Eagles for two warm-up games against Morocco this week, coach Manu Garba has announced.
“Wilfred was one of the assistant captains of the Golden Eaglets last year before he went on to join the Flying Eagles at the 2013 FIFA U20 World Cup in Turkey,” Manu said.
“He will captain the team for the matches in Morocco.”
The Flying Eagles battle their Moroccan counterparts on Wednesday and again two days later.
Manu said his substantive captain will be Besiktas of Turkey defender Musa Muhammed, who led the country’s team to win a record fourth U17 World Cup in Abu Dhabi in November.
Muhammed is due in Nigeria by Sundayand he will join the other half of the squad left behind in Abuja.
Manchester City pair of Kelechi Iheanacho and Chidiebere Nwakali met up with the Flying Eagles in Lagos on Saturday and they are expected to join up with the rest of squad in Abuja.
Meanwhile, the Flying Eagles have settled down quickly at the Wellness & Sports Center on the outskirts of Casablanca ahead of their two test games against their Moroccan counterparts.
It is a four-star facility with several well-kept football pitches, a standard swimming pool as well as basketball, handball and tennis courts.
The first match against their hosts will be on Wednesday by 4pm in the capital city of Rabat, which is a 35 minute-drive from where the team are staying.
Discussions are on-going where the second game will be played on Fridaymore so because the Morocco football federation polls will be conducted in the coming week.
Bouncing baby boy for ‘Ali Cairo’
It was great news for the Flying Eagles when on arrival in Morocco they learnt that the wife of team secretary, Aliyu Auwal Ibrahim aka ‘Ali Cairo’, had put to bed.
Ali, like the rest of the squad, was airborne on the way to Casablanca when his wife went into labour and you could only imagine the mental torture all through the four-hour flight from Lagos for him.
“I was really not myself during the flight, but I’m relieved that everything went very well,” said Ali, a father for the second time.
“Allah be praised.”
Flying Eagles spy on Kenya vs Tanzania clash
Ex-international Rafiu Yusuf from the NFF technical department was in the crowd in Machaskos when Kenya were held to a goalless draw by visiting Tanzania in a 2015 African Youth Championship qualifier on Sunday.
Yusuf, who also spied on the team’s possible opponents leading up to last year’s AYC in Algeria, is expected to now make available his findings to coach Manu Garba and his crew.
The overall winners of this clash will face Nigeria in the next round of the qualifying tournament in early May.
