The Flying Eagles of Nigeria under the tutelage of chief coach John Obuh will today begin their campaign in the Toulon Invitational soccer tournament against the event’s defending champion, Mexico Wednesday.
The kick-off of the match has been fixed for 5-30pm which is 4.30pm Nigerian time at the Stade Perruc Hyeres in France.
This will be the Flying Eagles first outing at the 46-year-old tournament and they will use it to prepare for the World Cup in Turkey.
Six of the 10 teams at this year’s competition will feature at the U-20 World Cup, namely Nigeria, Portugal, Colombia, France, United States of America, and South Korea.
Flying Eagles German assistant coach Jurgen Press, said, the Nigerian team will surely do well in the tournament, as “we have a good team which has been responding positively to what we are teaching them in camp. We will see how much they have learnt thus far,” he said.
Mexico and Nigeria last clashed at U-20 level two years ago when the CONCACAF giants defeated the Flying Eagles 4-1 in another invitational tournament in Panama preparatory to the 2011 U-20 World Cup in Colombia.
Meanwhile, Organisers announced no fewer than 1512 full internationals have passed through this annual competition and they include the likes of David Beckham, Frank Lampard (England), Mascherano (Argentina), Kaka (Brazil), Oman Biyk (Cameroon), James Rodrigues (Colombia), Kolo Toure, Didier Zokora (Cote d’Ivoire) as well as Lilian Thuram, Didier Deschamps and Nicolas Anelka
