Head Coach of Nigeria U20 national team, Ladan Bosso, said the quality of clubs the Flying Eagles engaged in friendly matches is not as important as the end result in getting the team ready for the CAF U20 African Nations Cup finals.
Since resuming camping in Abuja, Flying Eagles have played four non-league clubs in friendly matches scoring 25 goals and conceding just one.
Bosso, former Ifeanyi Ubah FC coach while responding to question on playing lowly rated teams in friendly matches, said, "Before we commence camping, I have arranged for friendly matches, forget the team and calibre of players they are playing against, the most important thing is that we are preparing for a tournament and its about (number of) matches. I have picked one or two players from the teams we've played against and they are to join the team by Monday.
He added that building a formidable team for U20 African Nations Cup is a work in progress, "for me, it's a work in progress, I said it even before we resumed that top fit players will be invited back. As you can see this morning I dropped about 15 players, some of them came with injury and you can't join a national team with injury." He concluded.
WAFU B Champions, Flying Eagles will be among the 12 teams that will fight for the CAF U20 AFCON title in Egypt. The seven times African champions denied the AFCON defending champions, Ghana the chance to take part in the competition. All four Semi-finalists in the championship which holds from 18th February to 12th March, 2023 will represent Africa at the FIFA U20 World Cup.