Flying Eagles Held ‘Hostage’ In Colombia

Nigeria’s Flying Eagles got a surprise welcome on arrival in Bogota for the FIFA U-20 World Cup when Colombia’s national police put up a super show for them yesterday morning.

The musical assemble of the Colombian police sang and danced in honour of Coach John Obuh and his team for about an hour at the Bogota airport. The team could not get a chance out of the airport as the Colombians sang to their delight.

Such was the warmth of the presentation that before long the players and officials also joined in with some even suggesting that the music was very similar to that of the Tiv in Benue State. It was, therefore, little wonder that defender Terna Suswan, a Tiv, seemed to enjoy the welcome the most.

According to the Flying Eagles’ Media Officer, Sam Audu, the team later connected a local flight to Armenia, a flight which lasted about 40 minutes. It was a scary experience for most of the team members as the Fokker 50 tossed around in the air several times.

However, the shaken nerves of the team were soon relaxed by another singing welcome party led by a blind, beautiful girl at the Armenia Airport. And again, the team joined in the fun.

The Flying Eagles are the first team to arrive Armenia and they are booked into the sprawling and exotic Las Camelias Hotel, which is about half an hour drive from the airport.

Soon after lunch, the players were ordered into the swimming pool for a quick dip.

In 1999, Armenia was completely destroyed by an earthquake and so the city of about 300,000 people had to be rebuilt from the scratch.

Nigeria will play two matches in Armenia, against Guatemala this Sunday and against Croatia three days later.