Peseiro lists eight debutants for 2023 AFCON

On Dec 30, 2023

Super Eagles head coach, Jose Peseiro, has included eight debutants in his final 25-man squad for the Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast.

They are goalkeepers, Stanley Nwabili and Olorunleke Ojo; defenders, Bright Osayi-Samuel, Bruno Onyemaechi, Calvin Bassey and Raphael Onyedika.

Others are Atalanta winger Ademola Lookman and Victor Boniface.

OGC Nice striker Terem Moffi and winger Nathan Tella, who plays in Germany for Bayer Leverkusen, have both been dropped.

Also excluded from the final team list are Adebayo Adeleye and Kelechi Nwakali.

But captain Ahmed Musa and his assistant William Troost-Ekong who has been out of the team for months will play in their third consecutive finals after making the squad for the tournament which kicks off on January 13.

The party also includes four players Alex Iwobi, Calvin Bassey and Frank Onyeka from the English Premier League making the final list.

2009 U-17 World Cup star Kenneth Omeruo (the only other candidate in the team apart from Musa who was in Nigeria’s 2013 squad that triumphed in South Africa) leads the defenceline alongside William Ekong, as well as Olaoluwa Aina, Oluwasemilogo Ajayi, Calvin Bassey, Zaidu Sanusi, Chidozie Awaziem, Bright Osayi-Samuel and Bruno Onyemaechi.

Wilfred Ndidi is also back in the roost after missing the World Cup qualifying matches against Lesotho and Zimbabwe, and will be expected to adequately feed the strike force alongside Alex Iwobi, Raphael Onyedika, Joe Ayodele-Aribo and Frank Onyeka.

Musa, Nigeria’s record goalscorer at the FIFA World Cup finals with a brace each in Brazil 2014 and Russia 2018, is in the forward-line alongside Africa Player of the Year Victor Osimhen, Kelechi Iheanacho, Moses Simon, Samuel Chukwueze, Victor Boniface, Sadiq Umar and Ademola Lookman.

All the 25 players will depart from their different bases on Tuesday, 2nd January to fly into Abu Dhabi, capital city of the United Arab Emirates, for a one-week training camp that will last until January 9. The team will fly back to Lagos that same day and then fly into the Ivoirian capital, Abidjan the following day.

Three-time winners Nigeria will face the hosts, Ivory Coast, Guinea-Bissau and Equatorial Guinea in Group A.

The Eagles, in their quest for a fourth continental title, will take on Equatorial Guinea on January 14 in their first match of Group A, before further clashes with host nation Ivory Coast January 18 and Guinea Bissau January 22.

Nigeria, who will be participating in the Africa Cup of Nations for the 20th time, were champions as hosts in 1980, triumphant in Tunisia in 1994 and crowned winners in South Africa in 2013.

When Ivory Coast hosted the finals in 1984, a young Nigerian squad led by the inimitable Stephen Keshi went all the way to the Final, before losing to the much-experienced Indomitable Lions of Cameroon in a memorable Final at the Stade Felix Houphouet-Boigny in Abidjan.