Ten foreign professionals have now joined the Super Eagles at the Metropolitan Hotel in Calabar for Saturday's AFCON qualifier against Liberia. The 10 foreign-based players who joined the seven players from the Nigeria Premier League inlude; Austin Ejide, Vincent Enyeama, Nosa Igiebor, Ikechukwu Uche, Elderson Echejile, Ahmed Musa, Obiora Nwankwo, Efe Ambrose and Brown Ideye.
Also in are three exciting youngsters, Ogenyi Onazi of Lazio, Inter Milan's Joel Obi and Chelsea new boy, Victor Moses, whose girlfriend recently put to bed a bouncing baby boy in London.
Three other professional players are expected to come on time yesterday before dinner so that they would participate in the morning and evening training today. There is a relaxed atmosphere in the training camp with Coach Stephen Keshi taking on Victor Moses over his newly born son.
"Does the boy look like you or like the mother"? Keshi pressed on, and Moses replied, "Coach, he looks pretty much like me," and the dining hall erupted in laughter. In the meantime, Eagles' goalkeeper trainer, Ike Shorunmu, was excited yesterday morning when the team had their second training at the UJ Esuene Stadium in Calabar. At the time of the session, Shorunmu was the only technical crew member that had his team of three goalkeepers complete, as Vincent Enyema,
Austin Ejide and Chigozie Agbim were already in town, rearing to go. He promptly seized the opportunity of the keepers' early arrival to drill them.
"I'm happy with the form of all the three keepers and I must say any of them could be in goal on Saturday with what I have seen so far. All they need is a little pep up from the public perception of them and we are already getting results even on that," he said. Shorunmu called on Nigerians to always support the team and not to put the blame at the doorstep of only the goalkeepers.
I just hope they get the job done.
l wish the Super Eagles of Nigeria the very best against Liberia. Go for win, Eagles!