Super Eagles Ready For AFCON As Peseiro Names Ahmed Musa, Ndidi, 23 Others For Continental Showdown

Nigeria’s national football team, the Super Eagles, have announced their squad for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), set to take place in Côte d’Ivoire next year. The 25-man squad includes two key players, captain Ahmed Musa and vice-captain William Troost-Ekong, whom head coach Jose Peseiro initially overlooked for the team’s recent games. However, after making the 40-man provisional list earlier this month, the Portuguese coach has included them in his final selection for the prestigious event.

Musa, who currently plays for Sivasspor in Turkey, was a member of the AFCON title-winning side in 2013, along with another Turkey-based player, Kenneth Omeruo, who has also been included in Nigeria’s final squad.

Unfortunately, there is no place for France-based Terem Moffi, who didn’t make the final cut. The team’s attack will be led by Victor Osimhen, the reigning African footballer of the year, who missed the 2021 tournament in Cameroon due to an injury. However, Leicester City duo Wilfred Ndidi will help him in midfield, and Kelechi Iheanacho will attend another AFCON tournament.

Peseiro has also omitted Portugal-based Kelechi Nwakali and Belgium-based Alhassan Yusuf but has allowed Chippa United goalkeeper Stanley Nwabali and Enyimba captain Olorunleke Ojo to represent Nigeria’s senior team in a major tournament for the first time. The team will depart from their respective bases on Tuesday, January 2, and fly into Abu Dhabi, the capital city of the United Arab Emirates, for a one-week training camp until Tuesday, January 9. Then, they will return to Lagos before flying to the Ivorian capital, Abidjan, on Wednesday, January 10. This is a crucial event, and Nigeria’s fans eagerly anticipate their team’s performance in the upcoming tournament.

It is worth noting that when Cote d’Ivoire hosted the tournament in 1984, a young Nigerian squad led by the legendary Stephen Keshi made it to the final but lost to Cameroon’s Indomitable Lions in a closely contested encounter at the Stade Felix Houphouet-Boigny in Abidjan.

The Nigerian national football team is set to compete in the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) tournament. The team has a glorious history in the competition, winning the championship three times in 1980 as hosts, 1994 in Tunisia, and 2013 in South Africa. In their upcoming campaign, the Super Eagles will lock horns with Equatorial Guinea in their first Group A match on Sunday, January 14, before facing Cote d’Ivoire, the host nation, on January 18 and Guinea-Bissau on January 22. Notably, the Nigerian team has participated in the AFCON tournament twenty times, attesting to their strong football pedigree