Golden Eaglets resume training in Calabar

Nigeria’s U17 team, the Golden Eaglets, will resume residential training in Calabar with a squad of 40 players at the end of April. Nigeria will take on next-door neighbours Niger in an African Junior Championship first round qualifier in September. The first leg will be played in Niamey on September 7, while the return clash is fixed for September 21. The Eaglets under new coach Manu Garba embarked a massive screening in Abuja recently and it is from this exercise that a final squad of 40 players were selected. The three-time world champions have failed to qualify for the last two African Junior championships in Algeria and Rwanda. Burkina Faso are the defending champions.