Sports
E’Guinea Thrusts 16-Year-Old Striker Into Qualifiers
Equatorial Guinea has included 16-year-old striker Luis Miguel Nlavo in their squad for next month’s World Cup qualifiers against South Sudan.
Coach Angel Lopez has named a 25-man squad for the Qatar 2022 preliminaries between 2 and 10 September.
Equatorial Guinea play away in the first leg and then host the return leg.
Nlavo, who turns 17 in November, is from champions Cano Sport Academy and has played for Equatorial Guinea’s home-based side.
He featured and scored in both legs of their 5-4 aggregate win over Chad in the African Nations Championship qualifiers.
There are two notable omissions from the squad that won 4-1 away in the Sudan in March in a credible end to their 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying campaign.
Veteran centre back Rui da Gracia Gomes, 34, has been dropped in a signal that his international career has come to an end, along with midfielder Carlos Martin Briones, otherwise known as Charly.
There are still 10 players from Spanish clubs in the squad, although those affiliated to top flight clubs play in their B or reserves team in the lower leagues.
Only former West ham midfielder Pedro Obiang, now back in Italy with Sassuolo, and captain Emilio Nsue, who plays in Cyprus with Apollon after spells at Middlesbrough and Birmingham City, can boast of time played at a high club level.
Santiago Eneme, who made his debut aged 17 last year in the Cup of Nations qualifiers, returns to the squad.
Now 18, he moved in March from Cano Sport Academy to Nantes in France, where he is a member of the French club’s under-19 side.
Equatorial Guinea is the first country to finalise their squad for next month’s qualifiers, which feature the 28 lowest ranked teams playing in 14 knockout ties. The winners advance to the group stage where they will be drawn in with the 26 top-ranked countries given a bye into the second round
A well-known football pundit in the State, Chief Christopher Okonkwo has lauded the efforts and vision of the Super Eagles Coach Eric Chelle for going from one venue of the Nigeria Domestic Nigeria Professional Football League match to the other in monitoring Nigerian players, with a view to invite some exceptional good one discovered into the main stream of the Super Eagles team.
Okonkwo, who made the commendation in an interview at the Port Harcourt Club recently, described the positive move by Coach Chelle as a good step in the right direction, noting that the practice was how its been done in the past among any contracted coach assigned to tinker the Super Eagles team.
“Truly, it has been an old tradition in the country seeing any newly engaged Coach to lead the National team, visiting some our Nigeria League venues during the league matches to spot light some good talents that could be used to beef up some grey areas in the department of Eagles team”
He, however, frowned at the current situation where our coaches had continously been over depending on the use of foreign based players during invitation of players to the National camp, thereby, relegating the domestic home based league players to the background as if they have nothing much to offer to the team.
“I can vividly recall that the likes of great players in the mode of Finidi George, Taribo West, Kanu Nwankwo, Austin Okocha, Richard Owobokiri, Emmanuel Osuigwe among others started from Nigeria football league before they graduated to play in Europe through which they later invited to Super Eagles camp to represent Nigeria”
“Besides, I’m also of the view that going to secondary school football competitive games could equally serves as a a good platform to discover budding talents that could be nurtured to become great stars in near future”, Okonkwo frankly added.
Okonkwo, therefore, prayed that any football coach to be engaged by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to tinker the Super Eagles should be told not to confine himself in staying in big hotel alone but to be visiting some of our local league match venues, with a view to discover some good players that can be drafted into the Super Eagles team.
“Indeed, I stand to be challenged that there some young good players in the Nigeria Professional League. If spotted and exposed, could give the some of the invited foreign based players a stiff competitive fight in securing a postion in the team”, Okonkwo emphatically stated.
Ezechukwu, one of the youngest members of the Nigerian contingent at the championship in Ghana, said her ambition was to win the 100m title in style and cap it with a new personal record.
The fresh secondary school graduate explained that she is fully focused on contributing to Team Nigeria’s medal hopes and is determined to deliver strong performances across her events.
“My main objective in Ghana is to clinch the 100m title and the 4×100m,” Ezechukwu told Tidesports source.
“Nigeria can be assured of my very best and my commitment to the Team. I would love to set a new personal best in Ghana, but anything that comes, I will take it. The spirit in the team is high, and I think we are ready to go,” she said.
Ezechukwu, who was part of Nigeria’s women’s 4x100m relay squad at the World Relays in Botswana, said the experience gained from that competition has strengthened her mindset heading into the continental championships.
She admitted that she learned valuable lessons from her previous outing, including a difficult moment during the relay where an early error affected the team’s rhythm, but said she has used the experience to improve her discipline and composure.
“The secret is just being disciplined, training hard and trusting my coach and believing in God, and the result will show,” she added.
The teenager is part of a 41-member Nigerian team comprising 24 female and 17 male athletes competing at the championships, which begin today at the University of Ghana, Legon.
Nigeria are expected to compete across multiple track and field events as they aim for a strong finish against the continent’s elite athletes.
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