Female national team, Super Falcons coach, Thomas Dennerby has disclosed that he would be expecting his players to start arriving at the camp from the 28th of this month, ahead of their African Women’s Nations Cup qualifier against Gambia.
While pointing out that one of ten players expected from overseas clubs, Ngozi Ebere will arrive earlier, Dennerby further pointed out that he chose to start his programme with home-based ladies, in order to give them a sense of belonging in the team.
Dennerby confirmed that no fewer than ten foreign professionals will be included in the team’s squad for the upcoming final round of qualifiers against the Gambia next month.
The Swedish coach did initially release a list of 26 players, consisting mainly of locally based players for the first phase of camping which commenced last week in Abuja.
However, Dennerby has now stated that only 10 will be selected to join the Europe-based players for the must-win encounter.
Reigning champions Nigeria will take on the Gambia for a place in the main tournament in Ghana, with the first leg slated to take place on the 2nd of June in Banjul before Nigeria hosts the second leg two weeks later.
Dennerby further gave an update on the players in camp, saying he and his coaching crew will continue to monitor them closely.
“The players have been performing well; we don’t have a full house yet because we just have 18 players currently. We will continue to monitor them closely before deciding the final squad for the Gambia match.
“This is not the final squad that will play the Gambia, it’s just a camp for the home-based players. The foreign professionals will come in later; Ngozi Ebere will come in before the end of this week and the others will start arriving from the 28th of May.
“We want to have a blend of local and foreign-based players so 10 from here and maybe 10 or 11 from those abroad,” Dennerby concluded.
