Essentuki is Nigeria’s Super Eagles home in Russia and this town is in the region, where the eagle is one of their symbols. Is this a good sign for Nigeria’s Super Eagles?
For Nigerian Coach Gernot Rohr, that may be a sign of luck as the Nigerian team get ready for the crunch clash against Croatia Saturday night in Kaliningrad.
When he was told that at a press briefing, the Franco-German coach remarked: “I didn’t know. It’s one more (good) sign (before the Croatia match).
“So many signs – the team have a real relationship with Russia (Ahmed Musa and Brian Idowu play here and Mikel Obi is married to a Russian lady); Kaliningrad is a former German city and so I have relationship with this country and I worked at Nice and Eintracht Frankfurt and both have an eagle as their symbol.”
Meanwhile, Nigeria’s young goalkeeper Francis Uzoho has admitted that it was a big surprise to make the World Cup squad.
Uzoho, at 19, is the youngest player in the Super Eagles pool and was called up after only a handful of La Liga appearances for Deportivo La Coruna.
“I never saw this coming this early,” said Uzoho, who made his full international debut in a friendly against Argentina in November in Krasnoder.
“It has been an incredible year for me in football. After five games (for the Eagles), it has given me a lot of confidence.”
*Reported by Samm Audu
