RandaFooty: Everything Nigerian football, home and abroad

Pic: courtesy goal.com Warri Wolves centre half Ike ThankGod is very confident the Glo Premier League side will do the nation proud when they meet Union Douala of Cameroon in the Caf Confederation Cup first round match scheduled for this weekend. The former Heartland FC defender told supersport.com that the Warri-based side is ready for the tough battle in Cameroon. "Wolves are ready, we know what is at stake and we won't let the country down," he said. "Playing on the continent is a different ball game entirely, we know what It takes. We'll come good and make Nigerians smile. "We know what happened to Pillars, It was rather unfortunate, but hopefully, ours will be better." Warri Wolves have beefed up their squad in the off-season with Bartholomew Ibenegbu, who joined in from Heartland, Brendan Ogbu, who had stints in South Africa and Tanzania and former ABS midfielder Lordson Ichull. pic: courtesy- mtnfootball.com F

Nigeria's preparation for the World Cup took another positive step as the jerseys and other gear that is to be used by the Super Eagles at Brazil 2014 were officially launched in Abuja on Thursday. At a well attended ceremony at the Sunday Dankaro House Headquarters of the Nigeria Football Federation, the unveiling attracted a lot of bigwigs in the sports fraternity in Nigeria that included members of the federation and officials from the sports ministry

Newly-appointed Head Coach of U-20 National Team, Manu Garba has invited 35 players for screening as he launches the race to get the Flying Eagles to the 2015 African Youth Championship, and subsequently, the FIFA U-20 World Cup New Zealand 2015. Nigeria will clash with the winner of the preliminary fixture between Kenya and Tanzania, in the second round of the qualifying series for the African Youth Championship in May, with the first leg away. Triumph will take the team into the final round of the qualifiers, and the continental championship is slated for Senegal in March 2015.

Nigeria's preparation looks to start in earnest when the Super Eagles take on the El Tri of Mexico in Miami on March 5 in an international friendly. This will be the first in a series of warm up matches lined up for the 2013 African Coach of the Year, preparatory to the World Cup which kicks off in June. The 'Big Boss' has released a 23 man team that will prosecute the Mexico friendly as he takes a look at how far his team has come from winning the Africa Cup of Nations last year, getting over the line to qualify for the football fiesta and also looking ahead to Brazil 2014. The usual suspects are back in the mix, but there are also new legs who have been given an opportunity to stake a claim to be included in the Brazil bound party, if they can impress at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta on March 5. Joseph Yobo's recall was the major talking point of Keshi's list, as the new Norwich City defender had been ostracized from the squad since the Nations Cup tr

Nigeria coach, Stephen Keshi, will have his hands full in the coming months as he tries to tinker with a pool of players that he hopes will hoist his country's flag successfully at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. After a decent show at the Chan 2014 hosted by South Africa where Nigeria picked up the bronze medal by edging out Zimbabwe in the classification match, the former Strasbourg defender will take a deserved rest before he begins the long and tedious journey of picking a provisional team prior to the final selection that will board the plane for Brazil. Suffice to say, after a long and challenging qualifying round, the core of the squad has already emerged, but there are a few players who are on the fringes of the full squad or just might be quality squad members to decide upon. In a four part series, Supersport.com takes a lot some of this players who might be in with a shot to make Keshi's provisional squad, when the dirty work begins in preparation for the

The Super Eagles have had a relatively modest record defensively in the last two major tournaments that the country has participated in. Aside the recently concluded Chan, the A team has conceded four goals in six matches at the 2013 Afcon held in South Africa ,and also allowed in six goals in it's three group matches at the Confederations Cup last June in Brazil. The 2014 Fifa World Cup will be a different ball game entirely as the defence has to be water tight and thoroughly organised if the team hopes to impress and go past the likes of Bosnia-Herzegovina ,who have potent front men like Vedad Ibisevic and Edin Dzeko and the Argentines who are blessed with strikers like Sergio Aguero and Lionel Messi. Stephen Keshi, who was a top defender in his playing days has to fashion out a solid defensive unit that will be able to hold it's own when he tinkers with personnel he feels can do the job for him. In the second part of our four part series, supersport.com take

pic courtesy fanatik Nigeria striker Simon Zenke has made a deadline day move from Turkish club Istanbul Metropolitan Belediyespor to Sanliurfaspor. The former Strasbourg of France striker penned a one-and-half year contract with Sanluirfaspor on the last day of the Turkish transfer window after being frozen out at Istanbul BB. Zenke, 24 who has also played for Samsunspor in Turkey was the top scorer for the team with 16 goals as they secured promotion in the 2010/2011 season to the Turkish top flight that earned him a move to AS Nancy in the French Ligue 1.