UAE Friendlies: Eagles Hail NFF, Crave More

After two exciting friendly games against Cote D’ Ivoire In Abu Dhabi and Yemen in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Nigeria's home based Super Eagles has called on Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, to sustain the culture of international friendlies.

While commending the NFF for keeping the team predominantly made of Nigeria's domestic league football players busy in the month of January, the squad's skipper, Chigozie Agbim, said the players were happy that they played two international friendlies against Cote D'Ivoire and Yemen national teams in Abu Dhabi,despite the failure of the nation to feature in the ongoing Equatorial Guinea Africa Cup of Nations.

Losing the former 1-0 and winning the latter by 2-0, the Super Eagles made up entirely of professional players from the Nigeria Premier League have commended the leadership of the NFF under Amaju Pinnick, for the friendlies even as it has asked for the sustenance of friendly games culture. 

Agbim, who captained the team to defeat Yemen national team by two unreplied goals on Saturday, said the friendlies would go a long way to build a virile squad of quality football players whose sense of unity would enable the team to win international competitions.

"All the players were very happy that they were not redundant in January, following the mishap of non-qualification for the ongoing Nations Cup championship in Equatorial Guinea"

He said he was speaking the minds of his teammates, who made the same remarks after the friendly against Yemen on Saturday in Dubai. “All the players were unanimous in saying that playing friendly games is a way of making the team jell together and building the unity of the team, the coaching staff and the ensuring that the players are active throughout the year.” 

 “What we want to demand is that this laudable development should not be a one off thing. We want a sustenance of the culture of friendly matches in the Nigerian soccer system, so that we will get to know ourselves better and we will not have the problem of blending when we have crucial qualifying games like it happened in the ACN qualifiers”.