25 April 2011
Super Eagles of Nigeria coach, Samson Siasia, would pick the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon as opponents for a friendly to mark next months inauguration of the countrys president, Goodluck Jonathan, who was recently re-elected.
MTNFootball.com has scooped that Siasia would like to meet Cameroon because they would provide his team with a good test as well as the fact that they are willing to take on a team made up of players from the Nigeria Premier League as well as some players from abroad.
It was reliably gathered that the Indomitable Lions have agreed that Nigeria could feature only a handful of top players along with new pros based abroad and some home-based players.
The other possible oponents for the May 28 clash in Abuja, Egypt, have demanded for Nigerias A team.
This Siasia believes will stress his stars who will take on Argentina and then Ethiopia in Addis Ababa all in the first week of June.
Also, Cameroon have demanded for an appearance fee of 60,000 Euros for this friendly, while Egypt want to be paid $300,000 and Cote d’Ivoire have slashed their asking price down to $170,000.
Siasias first assistant, Simon Kalika, is equally concerned about not overstretching the main squad for the both the Argentina friendly and Africa Nations Cup qualifying match against Ethiopia.
I am happy with the fact that we are having more friendly matches unlike in the past. Kudos goes to the Nigeria Football Federation and most importantly, the technical department, offered Kalika.
But playing two Grade A friendly matches within four days and later travel to play all important Africa Nations Cup qualifier against Ethiopia with the same set of players wont be the best thing to do.
So, for the May 28 match we could get some fresh players from the Nigerian Premier League who are already yearning for action to play this game.
There are some players the chief coach has just discovered. These new Europe-based young players could be tested against either Cameroon or Cote dIvoire.
But playing the May 28 friendly with same team that would play against Argentina and Ethiopia wont happen,Kalika further told MTNFootball.com from his base in Holland.
The NFF are also studying other proposals from Ghana and Tunisia for friendlies later this year.
