The Golden Eaglets arrived Dubai in the early hours of Tuesday into the waiting hands of Alhaji Ibrahim Auwalu, the Nigerian Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates.
Ambassador Auwalu had earlier breezed into town from his base in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the UAE, to meet the National Under-17 team and their officials that touched down at 7:20am local time (4:20am Nigerian time) aboard Emirates Airline B777-300ER that departed Lagos at 9pm on Monday.
“I think we are lucky to have so many people who are committed to our cause within and outside Nigeria,” Tayo Egbaiyelo, the Golden Eaglets’ administrator said while formally introducing Ambassador Auwalu.
Egbaiyelo added: “Just before our departure in Lagos, we were fortunate to meet the Sports Minister, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, and here today, we have the representative of President Goodluck Jonathan to welcome us to the UAE.
“These are not just mere coincidences and we know Nigerians are expecting so much from us.”
Auwalu welcomed the team to the oil-rich UAE even as he revealed that the Nigerian Embassy had been in constant touch with the top echelon of the Nigeria Football Federation, including President Aminu Maigari and the General Secretary, Barrister Musa Amadu, hence the seamless transition of the team from Lagos to Dubai.
He said: “It’s a great honour to welcome you to Dubai with my colleagues at the Embassy and we actually had to drive as early as possible from Abu Dhabi in order to receive you.
“I have been assured that we have a very good team and be assured of our support right through to the end of this championship.
“We shall continue to pray and give you all the moral support and we hope you would make Nigeria proud by becoming the first to win the trophy four times.”
On the entourage of Ambassador Auwalu were key staff at the Nigerian House in Abu Dhabi, including Edward Kogbara; Cornelia Umoh, Zakariy Usman and Protocol Officer, Paul Onwuemene.
The quartet would later follow the Golden Eaglets to Hotel Jawharia, which would be their new abode as they fine tune preparations for the 2013 FIFA Under-17 World Cup.
… resume training
The Golden Eaglets have resumed their training regimen on Tuesday upon their arrival in Dubai for a two weeks camping before the kick off of the 2013 FIFA Under-17 World Cup slated for October 17 to November 8.
The Head Coach, Manu Garba, said there was no time to waste since the kickoff of the 15th edition of the global cadet competition is fast approaching, adding that it was important for the players to shake off the jet lag occasioned by their travelling from Calabar in Cross River State to Lagos on Monday before embarking on another seven-hour non-stop flight from Lagos to Dubai.
All the 25 players trained on Tuesday evening at the pitch of Higher Colleges of Technology located within the Dubai Academic City under a fine weather condition of 29°C, with good visibility throughout the duration of the about two hours training that started 4:30pm local time (1:30pm Nigerian time).
“It is good we started today,” Coach Manu Garba said. “This is important because we had our last training session on Saturday morning in Calabar. So it’s good we start conditioning ourselves to our new environment.”
The Golden Eaglets are expected to train henceforth twice daily with variations as occasion demands before their departure to the city of Al-Ain, which is about 90 minutes from Dubai by air for their preliminary group matches against Mexico and Iraq on October 19 and 22.
The team’s last match against Sweden would take place in Dubai on October 25.
