U23 Afcon: “Olympic Eagles can rely on key players for battle” – Kennedy Boboye

Assistant Coach of the Nigeria U23 side, Kennedy Boboye believes his team has at least five top players to successfully execute their U-23 African Cup of Nations (AFCON) Qualifiers match with Tanzania later this month.

“We still have our core team. After the continental games, we have players that will join us,” revealed Boboye in a monitored interview by nigeriafootball.ng on Brila FM this week.

“We also have players that will join us from outside the country. With this bunch of players, I think we have gotten about five players ready to face the battle.”

Meanwhile, former U-23 goalkeeper handler, Eta Egbe has said there should be no room for excuses as far as the Qualifiers are concerned.

“Knowing fully well that the team is representing the variety of Nigerians, normally we will want to know whether they resume camp early or not. All that Nigerians are looking for is for the team to scale the first hurdle,” Egbe said.

The first leg of the second round AFCON U23 qualifiers is scheduled to take place on 22nd October in Tanzania with the return leg slated for Saturday, 29th October at the Lekan Salami Stadium, Ibadan.

The Nigerian side is the only team to have won gold, silver, and bronze medals at the football event of the Olympics.

At Atlanta 1996, Nigeria won the first football gold medal for Africa defeating Argentina 3-2 and 12 years later in Beijing, the country’s won a silver medal after a 1-0 defeat to Argentina thanks to Angel Di Maria’s goal.  In 2016, Nigeria won a bronze medal at the Rio Olympics.