Beach Eagles Begin Camping For African Tourney

The national beach soccer team will today begin camping for this year’s African Beach Soccer Championship, which will take place in Casablanca, Morocco between 15 – 19 June, 2011.

Team Coach Adamu Audu said the team, that have in their kitty two African titles from 2007 and 2009, will start the camping with 30 new players in Ajaokuta, Kogi State from Saturday, 14–27 May.
 
“We want to start with the new players, because the truth is that some of the established squad are really getting old for the strenuous demands of beach soccer. “So, when we have this two-week camping in Ajaokuta, we will select 15 new players, who will join some of the old stars for the second phase of camping”, said Coach Audu.

The second phase of camping will take place at the team’s regular base in Badagry, Lagos from 29 May–12th June, which will see 25 players battling for shirts in the 12-man squad that will represent Nigeria in the continental tourney.

The top two teams from the African Beach Soccer Championship will qualify for the FIFA Beach Soccer Championship scheduled for Rivera, Italy in September.   

The invited players are: Friday Achumugu (Lobi Stars, Makurdi), Blessing Ovoka (Super Bees, Kaduna), Ololade Abiola (Chariots of Fire, Lagos), Zabi Emmanuel (Adamawa Utd), Shehu Maijamaa (Wikki Tourists, Bauchi), Ola Ogundele (Zamfara Utd, Gusau), Stephen Sanyo (Young Stars, Makurdi), Linus Adams (Kaduna Utd), Musa Najere (Enugu Rangers) and Odawudu Eboh (Sunshine Stars, Akure). The others are: Agboyi Ovbokhar (Nyanya FC, Abuja), Thomas Ekoja (Plateau Utd), Layi Oyeleke (Crown FC, Ogbomoso), Usman Abba (Kano Pillars), Jibrin Adams (Apa Utd, Oturkpo), Areme Yusuf (Makwada FC, Yola), Chukwuma Ngwu (Global Academy, Lagos), Omotayo Abiodun (Fountain FC, Ado-Ekiti), Audu John (Go Round FC, Port Harcourt), Emma Idache (Maraba All-Stars, Abuja), Ifechukwu Amaefina (FC Aba), Emma Agale (Dragon FC, Dekina), Onuche Aliyu (Cruzeiro Academy, Lafia), Thomas Anebe (Dragon FC, Dekina), Femi Johnson (Dynamos FC), Joshua Tanko (All Stars FC, Kaduna), Emeka Theana (Owerri FC), Ayeni Oluwatosin (Orolu FC, Oshogbo), Calistus Nwankwo (Unicem FC, Calabar) and Stephen Ebuka (Isiaga Sport FC, Lafia).