Flying Eagles Know U-20 World Cup Foes Friday

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Flying Eagles team to AFCON 2019.

The draw for the 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup will take place on Friday, February 24 in the city of Gdynia, Poland with Nigeria’s Flying Eagles among the 24 qualified teams that will know their group opponents.

The biennial competition will be staged in six Polish cities; in Lodz, Bielsko-Biala, Bydgoszcz, Gdynia, Lublin and Tychy from 23 May to 15 June 2019.

The Flying Eagles are one of the teams that will compete for honours at the 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup. Mali, Senegal and South Africa are other African countries set to take part in the tournament as African representatives.

Paul Aigbogun’s tutored side emerged fourth at the just concluded U-20 Africa Cup of Nations in Niger after losing to Mali in the semi-final and also lost in the third-place play off to the Amajita of South Africa.

The Flying Eagles, have seven of the previous U-20 AFCON titles failed to qualify for the 2017 edition of the competition, losing to minnows Sudan in the qualifiers.

Aigbogun and his players will look to become the second African country to win the FIFA U-20 World Cup after Ghana who won it in 2009.

Nigeria’s Flying Eagles has however featured twice in the final losing 2-0 to Portugal in 1989 and 2-1 to Argentina in 2005.

Other representatives at the 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup are Japan, Korea Republic, Qatar and Saudi Arabia for the Asia , while CONCACAF have four representatives; Honduras, Mexico, Panama and USA.

France, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Ukraine and hosts Poland will fly Europe’s flag in the tournament, while Oceania have New Zealand and Tahiti as their torch bearers.

Conmebol will be represented by Argentina, Colombia and Ecuador.

The FIFA U-20 World Cup has long been a breeding ground for some of world football’s most gifted players, with the likes of Diego Maradona, Lionel Messi, Robert Prosinecki, Zvonimir Boban, Adriano and Paul Pogba having blossomed at the tournament.

The likes Mutiu Adepoju, Taye Taiwo John Mikel Obi are some of the Nigerian players who shone in the competition in the past with the Flying Eagles, and later had a representation at the senior level.