The Nigeria U23 team will take on Guinea in the first leg of the final round of qualifiers for the U23 Africa Cup of Nations later today at the Moshood Abiola stadium in Abuja, OGN reports.
Ahead of the game coach of the Nigerian team Salisu Yusuf has been in camp for around two weeks drilling around 27 players in preparation for the game. The preparation hasn’t been smooth sailing with 16 out of the 30 players initially invited sent packing due to age discrepancies.
He called up 16 players based abroad with question marks on at least 11 of the players due to the limited game time at their clubs with some playing in obscure European leagues and low division.
One name that would have lighten their chances of getting past Guinea over two legs is Gent of Belgium hitman Gift Orban. The 20 year old who has taken the Belgium top division league by storm following his January transfer deadline day move.
Orban has scored 12 goals in ten games this season with 7 coming in just six league games and a three minutes hattrick in the Europa Conference League, which is a new record for European club competition.
It was his form that led to a call up to the Nigeria U23 team by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) who decided to bypass the coach Salisu Yusuf, who wasn’t keen on having the ex Stabæk forward in his team.
His hesitation led to a delay in the invitation letter sent to Gent and falling outside the 14 days required by FIFA for clubs to be informed about the invitation of their players for national team engagement.
Although Salisu claimed the invitation was sent within the deadline of 14 days, his representative told OGN that he only got his letter of invitation last weekend after his haul against Zulte Waregem in the Belgium top division.
” Gift was invited a week ago. Gent made it clear in their reply to the invitation that the timing is short and they can’t prepare him for the game. The invitation came late and it was at their mercy to either accept or decline. That was what happened”, he said.
