Head coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Eric Chelle included three surprise names in his list of players for the upcoming friendly tournament in Turkey, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.
The initial plan was for the tournament to take place in Jordan but it has been moved to Turkey due to the escalating violence in the Middle East in the war between Israel and Iran.
Nigeria who won’t be at the world cup will use the tournament to begin the second phase of the rebuild of the team under Eric Chelle, who led the team to a third place finish at the AFCON in January.
They will open their campaign at the tournament against Iran on the 27th of March, while Jordan take on Costa Rica in the tournament’s other game.
Per the organiser, the final round of games will be played on the 31st of March, with Nigeria up against Jordan while Iran square up with Costa Rica.
Chelle who led the team to a third place finish at the AFCON in January has already submitted the list of players for the tournament to the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), and it was made public earlier on.
Like we exclusively reported, the coach handed invitation to three new players in Emmanuel Fernandez of Scottish side Rangers, Philip Otele of Belgium side Hamburg and Yira Sor of Belgium side Genk.
Sor is rated among the fastest players in Europe, and Chelle was blown away when he watched him in a recent league game. He is the new winger we reported yesterday.
” Sor has blistering pace and it blew Chelle away. The coach believe he is the fastest player he has ever seen in a while. Nigerians will love him because he is very exciting”, a source said.
Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman
