Head coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Ladan Bosso says the team will begin the second phase of their preparation for the U20 Africa Cup of Nations by January.
Bosso has been in camp for two weeks and so far his team has won every test game played against local teams but from next week they will step it up by playing against teams from the Nigeria Professional Football League and also the Nigeria National League (NNL).
He said that will be the final lap of their preparation with players based in Nigeria before a decision will be taken on areas where he will look abroad for players who will join the team in January. One month before the AFCON gets underway in Egypt.
In an exclusive chat with Owngoalnigeria.com, he said he has already sounded out ten players but he will no doubt trim the list pending on areas where the team is lacking or needs more options.
” If I am calling a player based abroad. I expect that player to walk into my team and make a difference, I won’t call a player from a team in Europe and keep him on the bench. I have ten names but I am waiting to see where we will need reinforcement before settling for some in the list”, he told Owngoalnigeria.com.
On if he is open to the idea of calling players born abroad, the coach said he won’t hesitate to pick among them if they have the quality to make the team better and also decide to play for Nigeria.
” It starts with the quality and if they can improve our team. They are Nigerians and it will be unfair to discriminate against them because of where they were born but we also have to be sure of the player’s willingness to play for Nigeria before making our move”, he remarked.
