Nigeria’s Under-17 team, the Golden Eaglets, landed safely in Kinshasa, the capital of Congo Democratic Republic, on Thursday.
This was after flying for almost 10 hours.
They brimmed with confidence ahead of their 2015 second round, first leg match slated to hold on Saturday in Kinshasa.
The team, which departed their Calabar, Cross River State base for Lagos on Wednesday, flew out of the Murtala Muhammed Airport same night aboard Kenya Airways and made a stopover in Cotonou before embarking on a five-hour nonstop journey to arrive at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport at 8:30 am local time (6:30am Nigerian time).
They boarded immediately another two-and-half hour Kenya Airways flight for DR Congo and finally touched down at the N’djili Aeroport International in Kinshasa at exactly 10:10am local time-exactly, which is the same time in Nigeria.
After completing immigration formalities, the Golden Eaglets alongside Rafiu Yusuf, the Nigeria Football Federations;s Head of Technical Department; Emmanuel Adesanya, NFF’s Head of Inter-clubs Department; and Kut Kut Fon of NFF’s Accounts Department, were received by Masiala Gaspard of the Protocol Department of the Federation Congolaise de Football Association.
The contingent was later driven to Kampo Hotel on Avenue de la Commune and they are already settling down even as officials from the Nigeria’s Embassy have promised to assist them for a successful outing.
“We were here earlier with the Ambassador (Dr. Grant Ehiobuche) earlier in order to welcome you but unfortunately, you were not around then,” informed Ibrahim Miringa, the Head of Chancery at the Nigerian Embassy during lunch. “But there is nothing to worry about as we would do everything possible so that your outing would be successful here.”
In a related development, two stars of the 2013 Golden Eaglets’ World Cup team, goalkeeper Dele Alampasu and midfielder Chidiebere Nwakali, were on hand at the MMA on Wednesday night to wish the team a successful outing.
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