Head coach of Nigeria’s U-20 men’s national football team, Isah Ladan Bosso has admitted Senegal might be the hardest nut to crack in group A of this year’s U-20 AFCON championship slated for Egypt.
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The group which consists of host nation Egypt, Senegal, Mozambique and Nigeria will see the Flying Eagles starting off their campaign in what promises to be a crunchy tie against the young lions of Senegal in their group opener.
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The match leaves Ladan Bosso with a little bit of trepidation, since he has little or no inkling about Senegal’s strength, but remains resolute that his team will conquer any opposition regardless, paimedia.com.ng reports.
“Senegal is going to be the most difficult team for us, why am saying this, it is because we have not seen them play and they have not seen us play”
“But If you can win your first match in any tournament, that will give you hope and that was the spirit we stuck with in Niger Republic and that was why we were able to outplay Ghana because of the spirit and the target we gave ourselves”
“The first match you will see some players will have some feelings in their body, so we know how to manage it and we know how to conquer them”
When asked about the quality of players at his disposal and their chances of giving Nigerians something to cheer in Egypt, Bosso said he will welcome the chance to incorporate observations, suggestions and recommendations of better quality players on exceptional situation to displace the current crop of invited players in camp.
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“Now, the other aspect is for those of them that are here now, all we are trying to seek from Nigerians is to allow us to concentrate on this team, make your suggestion, watch out where you notice one or two things, make your observation and come to us and tell us your observation and yes we are all Nigerians and we cannot see all”
“If they’re other better players you think can displace these ones of course we can welcome such players but on exceptional situation, you must have watched him play outside playing in his own club for him to be invited, what we have now is to get a blended and not a screening”
The former Adamawa United coach also noted that any invited foreign based player who fails to turn up for the final phase of camping in Nigeria before the team embarks on a training tour should consider himself out of the team as he will not be willing to embrace any form of preferential treatment.
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He also warned that he will not compromise on any foreign based player who repudiates the chance to join the training camp in Nigeria to fight for a place in the team with the home based players, as such a player will neither be allowed to connect with them during their training tour nor at the tournament venue.
“As you can see, two foreign based players are already here, no foreign based will meet me in my training tour camp or the tournament venue, it’s not possible, they have to come here, they have to showcase what they have, they have to fight with the local boys, if they’re better off why not, but if they cannot beat those ones here, it means they have no space”
Responding to questions why he is also leaning on foreign based players when they’re alot of home grown talents to prosecute the AFCON championship, Bosso said the door is open to both local and foreign based players on the basis of the fact that anyone born of Nigeria are eligible to play and represent their fatherland regardless of where their places of residents are, so as to avoid letting our players slipping off our hands and pledging their allegiance to other countries.
“we are all Nigerians and it’s not about talent, you are playing in Nigeria from the academy, now you have gone to play professional football in Europe, at least let’s give them hope that they’re Nigerians”
“Let them come and play for their country, if we say because they’re foreign based we don’t want to use them at this level, it means we are not doing good for them and for ourselves because tomorrow they can be better off and they can pledge their allegiance to other countries what will happen”?
“So they must be better than what we have at home before they can be part of this team”