The Super Eagles of Nigeria landed in Kigali early this morning, following a straight chartered flight from Lagos to the Rwandans capital city.
The team comprising of 11 home based and 11 foreign based players arrived Rwanda ahead of Joseph Yobo’s record caps of playing in the national team.
The team Captain will be setting a Nigerian record for international matches when the national team take to the pitch in Stade Regionale de Nyamirambo on Wednesday.
The 31 year-old defender equalled the Nigerian record of 86 caps, jointly held by late midfielder Mudashiru Lawal and Nwankwo Kanu, when the eagles defeated the newly- crowned African champions Zambia 2-nil in Kaduna on November 15, 2011.
On Wednesday, the Turkish based defender will become the first Nigerian to get 87 caps where he will be leading the Eagles in the 2013 African cup of nations qualifying match against the Wasps.
The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has congratulated the Fenerbahce defender, who will also be celebrating his 11 year anniversary of with the senior national team next month.
Return of The Yak
Meanwhile, Blackburn Rovers striker and Super Eagles retunee Yakubu Aiyegbeni has said he is determined to do more for Nigeria after putting behind him the miss of the 2010 World cup.
The striker at the 2010 World Cup missed his shot on goal, just five yards off the goal post, shooting off target in a game against South Korea, which Nigeria needed to win to have any chance of advancing to the next round of the Mundial.
Football fans across the country loathed him for the miss and it was not until the arrival of new Eagle’s coach, Stephen Keshi that he earned a recall to the national team following his 13 goals thriller in the English premier league, this season.
The eagles will be counting on-The Yak-as he is fondly called, to get the goals in the game in Rwanda.
The game which might be played under a hot tropical weather, will pose no problem for the striker as he insisted that “as professionals, we must be able to cope with whatever conditions we face and still get the job done.”
