Coach Imama Amapakabo of the U-23 team of Nigeria has submitted his preliminary list of players for the Africa U23 Cup of Nations which will take place in Egypt.
The tournament serves as the qualifiers for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo and as demanded by CAF the coach has forwarded his list of players for documentation ahead of their departure for the tournament.
Owngoalnigeria.com exclusively gathered that as many as nine players based abroad were included in the list with the coach keen on having a blend with home based players who have been inactive for months as the league in Nigeria is yet to begin.
Imama is banking on the foreign based players who are all active with their various teams in Europe to cover up for the lack of competitive games most of the players selected from the local front don’t have for the past four months.
Nigeria are the defending champions and they will open their campaign on the 9th of November with their first group game Ivory Coast , a day after the start of the tournament. They will take on South Africa and Zambia in their other group games on the 12th and 15th of November respectively.
