Coach of Nigeria’s Flying Eagles, Manu Garba has included former Golden Eaglets goalkeeper, Dele Alampasu in a list of 22 players called up for the two warm-up games against their Ghanaian counterparts, reports eyeonthesports.com.
Alampasu, who recently signed for Portuguese top division club, Estoril joins the Nigeria U-20 team to be led by skipper Musa Muhamed.
Eyeonthesports.com reports that due to the formalities of his move to Estoril FC of Portugal, Alampasu was not part Coach Garba’s team for the Glo Super 4, a pre-season tournament held in Abuja recently, but the lanky goalkeeper is back to join his 2013 FIFA U-17 World Cup winning teammates.
Before Alampasu moved to Portugal from Abuja Football Academy this month, he was discovered by the Champions of Fire Football Club, a youth side sponsored by Prophet Abiola Adebisi of the Christ Miracle Church Mission, CMCM in Lagos.
Interestingly, the current Flying Eagles squad are dominated by the players who won the FIFA U-17 World Cup in UAE two years ago.
They include returnee goalkeeper Sunday Alampasu, Akinjide Idowu, Abdullahi Alfa, Zaharadeen Bello, Samuel Okon, Musa Yahaya, Chidera Ezeh and Taiwo Awoniyi.
Others on the squad are goalkeeper Joshua Enaholo, Obinna Nwobodo, Ifeanyi Ifeanyi, Ifeanyi Matthew, Abdullahi Ibrahim Alhassan aka ‘Mu-azam’.
Both the Flying Eagles and the Black Satellites are preparing for next month’s African Youth Championship in Senegal.
The first test match between the two rival West African countries will be played on Saturday and a second match is fixed for Wednesday.
The Flying Eagles will depart for Ghana on Friday via Lagos and return to the country on Thursday, 19 February.
The Full Squad:
Goalkeepers: Joshua Enaholo, Sunday Alampasu, Olorunleke Ojo
Defenders:Musa Muhamed, Zaharadeen Bello, Izu Omego, Mustapha Abdullahi, Samuel Okon, Abdulganiyu Saheed
Midfielders:Ifeanyi Matthew, Ifeanyi Ifeanyi, Akinjide Idowu, Obinna Nwobodo, Musa Yahaya, Bernard Bulbwa, Abdullahi Alfa
Strikers: Taiwo Awoniyi, Abdullahi Ibrahim Alhassan, Usman Hassan, Chidera Ezeh, Abubakar Lawal and Wasiu Jimoh.
