Nigeria’s Super Eagles will face Ukraine in an international friendly match on September 10 in Kiev, reports Completesports.com.
It will be the Super Eagles’ first outing since their 2019 Africa Cup of Nations Third-Place match in Cairo Egypt against the Carthage Eagles of Tunisia which The Gernot Rohr’s team won 1-0.
President of the Nigeria Football Federation, Amaju Melvin Pinnick made the announcement via the Social Media on Friday
Pinnick’s Tweet informs the game is part of his administration’s initiative to expose more players to international football.
“We have secured a Grade A international friendly match for the Super Eagles against the Ukraine in Kiev, on the 10th of September. It is part of our ongoing drive to expose as many players as we can to global football, so this should be another springboard for our national team development,” reads the Tweet on Pinnick’s Twitter handle.
The game will serve as part of preparation for the Super Eagles’ 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying games against the Squirrels of Benin billed to hold on November 11 at a yet to be named venue in Nigeria.
Gernot Rohr’s men finished in third position at the AFCON 2019 finals.
By Adeboye Amosu
25 Comments
This is wonderful for the Nigeria team.
This is good. No critics. I would love to hear Segun Odegbami write up on this. In fact all those who love to see the NFF as a money wasting venture should wrote now.
This is wonderful for the Nigerian team.
Nice one!
So far so good for pinnick and his team they are getting it right,i think mr Rorh is going to call those guys that want to switch to nija,
Fantastic development. Time to unleash the future of the SuperEagles. Let’s see how we can use different options in midfield and attack. Top 25 countries are seeking friendly matches with the SuperEagles now due to our current ranking. Gone are the days when SuperEagles friendly matches are only played on the pages of newspapers or online. Kudos to Pinnick and his board.
I hope the coach can use this opportunity to invite Joe Aribo, Eberechi Eze, and even Ademola Lookman as this may play a huge role in convincing him to switch nationality and other better players out there to provide competitions for the settled players
Yes, we want to see joe Aribo in super Eagles colours. That boy is the missing link in super Eagles midfield. If NFF allow England to go ahead and get him im done with supporting Eagles and i will never forgive Rohr. A middle 3 of Ndidi, Etebo and joe Aribo is too tantalising to overlook. Please delay can be dangerous especially now that the boy has said he wana play for Nigeria
Inviting lookman , eze etc would not be possible for now they need FIFA clearance to feature. I can’t wait to see the new list and who replaced igahlo
they don’t need any clearance to play friendly matches
@Ovie, not true bro. A player needs international clearance fo play for another country if they have played youth games for a different country.
Both these players have played age group football for England so will need to switch allegiance and have papers filed with FiFA in order to play for Nigeria in a “FIFA sanctioned match” during a FIFA international football window.
The fact it is a friendly doesn’t make a difference, it still counts towards international caps, fifa rankings and allegiance
Joe aribo Rangers,Eberechi eze QPR,Good one. David okereke Club brugge,Nathan delfouneso,fikayo tomori,Chuba Akpom,ike ugbo
Joe Aribo all d way
Friendlies gives coaches the opportunity to test new players but not GR, he is unnecessarily too conservative with his invitation/selection of players especially when prosecuting friendly matches like the upcoming Ukrainian friendly. He plays both competitive matches and friendly matches with the same team thereby making it extremely difficult for more players to break into the team. And it is not good for super Eagles.For example what is John Ogu still doing in the Super Eagles, He has been permanently on the bench since when the late Stephen Keshi was the coach, the likes of samuel chukweze were still in school when he started maintaining his position on the bench and now Chukweze is a first team player and Ogu is still on the bench, why? If he were a very young player one would understand that he is understudying the senior boys but he is not young. Players like that should make way for fresh legs so that players like etebo and Ndidi will not be continuously over worked like they did in Egypt recently.
Mr. President, do whatever you want now because your days are numbered in the office. November 21 is your judgment day if I’m not mistaken.
You are have been wasting our money unnecessarily for a long time to covered you mess.
Deep down inside you, you knew that upon all the friendly matches Super Eagles had under coach Rohr, the coach and his players learned nothing about it.
They failed at the world cup when it was matter most. They failed in Afcon as well and coach Rohr keeps given us excuses in every competition.
That is why I keep calling coach Dennerby’s name because tactically, the coach is there.
That is why I keep calling Amunike’s name because he is the right person for the job.
Over the 3years now, the coach refused to try out new players and goalkeepers. Still, you Mr. President stick to the coach because you are getting your parcentage in his salary every month.
This coach can’t give what he doesn’t have. Let him call Mess and Ronaldo into his team and see by yourself.
I thought you were moving Nigeria forward before but after the CAF scandal, it’s now clear that you are a big problem to our football and a big 419 of all time.
The coach have been struggling to build a sound and solid team, why keeping the coach?
If Nigerian leaders are not bad and corrupt, you, coach Rohr, Diko and Seyi would have been out of their Services by now and three of you would have been punished for your deeds.
Sooner or later, Oga Rohr will go because this friendly match will expose him.
Instead of wasting another 3 years with Oga Rohr, Amunike is ready to get the job done with his wealth of experience, boldness and confidence.
I am doing all this because I love my Country and always proud to be a Nigerian.
I see no future with coach Rohr and NFF will regret their decision. That is very sure. Yes, I’m very sure of that.
Super Falcons have been neglected since after the world cup. No single friendly match bn organized for them and yet, you are calling yourself mr. President? Nigeria is not a failed state but you people in the system.
God bless Nigeria!!!
Legend Steven Gerrard reserved special praise for Joe Aribo following Rangers’ impressive 4-2 road win against FC Midtjyland in the Europa League third qualifying round on Thursday evening.
The Scottish Premiership giants led 3-0 after 56 minutes thanks to goals from Alfredo Morelos, Aribo and Nikola Katic, before Nigerian midfielder Frank Onyeka reduced the deficit in the 58th minute.
The former Charlton Athletic star continues to show what he’s capable of since his arrival at Ibrox, with his strike against FC Midtjyland his third goal in Rangers colors from five appearances in the Europa League qualifiers. Joe Aribo again gets an unbelievable goal.”
London-born Aribo is willing to represent the Super Eagles if he is approached by the Nigeria Football Federation. Please Nff and Mr. Rohr should get this guy now. We need him and Bazee, Eze, Lookman, Abraham and Akpom. Nff and Rohr please no more delay.
Well said. We need to step up efforts to cap Aribo. It will be well worth it! A box to box midfielder, strong tackler, dangerous going forward. Make we no siddon look like teddy bear, come miss this opportunity oooooo!
The guy is really needed in super eagle ooooo,d guy na machine ooooo.
We also need a good shot stopper and we can try our hands on many of them both home and abroad.Unfortunately, Coach Rohr doesn’t like trying otherv players except those he has been using all there years.
I would suggest he tries someone like Sebastian Osigwe in the already leaking goal keeping department. The guy has a 100% first team appearance for his Swiss challenge league side SC Kriens. We need to fortify our team departments to be ready for bigger challenges in the football world.
I am yet to see Aribo play but from all indications he seem to be a good kid.
Meanwhile,invitations to the national team is done by the coach of the team depending on areas that needs strengthening.Sometimes a fantastic player is invited irrespective depends on if he is better than one already in the team.In that case if Aribo is a player Rohr sees as a potential addition to his team I do not see why he won’t get an invite just like Chukwueze and a few others who excelled in their various clubs.
However,this foreign players of Nigeria descent are difficult to lure especially when they are in top shape because they see their stock rise with great potentials to feature for their country of birth in this situation accepting invitations may not be as smooth as we think.
When a team list is made official,this are players who are available to the coaches after consultations.We most times feel aggrieved over the non invitation of our favourite players and sometimes go as far as calling for the head of coaches without being aware that the coaches actually contacted some of this players without success.
Meanwhile,I believe there could be new and credible additions to the team as with every team post tournaments,new additions are made to replace players whom the coaches feel are not good for the team going forward.
Whoever Rohr chooses should get our support because he’s the coach and knows what’s best for his team with the players available.
Ukraine friendly is a very good test for the super eagles.
Ukraine is a top side I believe we shall have a very good opponent to give us a good match up which is what we need to see how the new players and the regular ones are able to play together as unit.
It looks very interesting and a game to look forward to.
Goodluck super eagles!
I get the feeling that a lot of people will be disappointed with the selection for this match.
Just a day before, on the 9th of Sept the Nigeria Under 23 the will play the crucial second leg of the final qualifying game against Sudan. That match has a higher priority than the friendly in Kiev. With that in mind, I would expect the players Nigerians want to see in the Super Eagles play for the under 23s.
Osimhen, Uzoho etc who were drafted to help the under 23s in the match against Libya will likely feature again. Leaving Onuachu, Et al to prosecute the friendly.
I have deliberately not mentioned Chukwueze as he can be drafted into either squad
Thank you @Greenturf and BigD.But when will omo9ga learn to have sound analysis and criticise with understanding. If u continue like this they will soon come after u with DSS for making allegations that are not substantiated.Omo9ja have u truly made your findings and u r sure that Pinnick is guilty of whatever allegations from CAF?Has any Court found him guilty of embezzlement? Did Rohr tell you with facts that he shares part of his salary with Pinnick?o boy be careful of what u peddle,the freedom of speech you have has serious limitations and that limitations can be evoked against you.If you seriously don’t have anything reasonable to say or can’t control your emotions the way others on this platform do just keep mute,u really don’t have to say a thing.
Many of us have had to cope with ur grammatical blunders as it can be seen above as we overlook same cos no one is above mistakes so you should do same control your emotions and keep mute.Tanks .
Somebody should please talk to our coach to invite joe aribo, drop likes of john ogu for now, we need to cap ARIBO please.
I agree,that lad Aribo reminds me of VIERA,crazy left foot but also comfortable on the right.His final ball is top notch. Will be a great addition.
that guy “Joe Aribo” is a fantastic midfielder with a deadly left leg. one of the most interesting attributes of him is how dangerous he is at the final third which I think super eagles is currently lacking… Nigeria needs no paperwork to play for Nigeria as he hasn’t featured for england in a competitive match.
If Rohr knows how to scout for good players I will know when the Nigeria vs Ukrainian game list is released in the next few days…
it will be tantalising to see this guy don the green-white of nigeria comes sep.10th.