Russia-based defender joins Super Eagles for Argentina friendly

The Nigeria football Federation has confirmed that Russia–based Bryan Idowu has linked up with the Super Eagles ahead of Tuesday’s friendly against Argentina.

Idowu who is hoping for a debut appearance in Tuesday’s friendly against the two-time world champions, Argentina, on Saturday night joined up with the rest of the squad after they arrived in Krasnodar, Russia.

He told thenff.com: “It’s a big privilege for me to be part of this great squad. I will definitely give my best in order to remain a part of this team.

“It’s a big honour for me to be called into the Super Eagles. I will give this opportunity my very best shot so I can stay here for a long time. I believe this team will put smiles on the faces of Nigerians at the World Cup next year.”

Idowu, 25, has a Nigerian father while his mother is half-Russian, half-Nigerian.

He was born and raised in St. Petersburg, except for a period when he was aged 3 to 6 when he lived in Owerri, South-East Nigeria.

The defender plays for Russian Premier League side, Amkar Perm.

Meanwhile, it is understood that John Obi Mikel will start for the Super Eagles on Tuesday after he was rested for Friday’s game in Algeria.

The kick-off time for the Argentina, Nigeria game is 7 p.m. local time in Russia, which will be 5 p.m. Nigerian time.

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Also, the Super Eagles’ Technical Adviser, Gernot Rohr, has thumped up the Nigeria Football Federation for the “professional and committed manner” it handled the Super Eagles’ 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign.

“For sure, we must commend the NFF for the role they played right from that game in Ndola against Zambia to last Friday’s game in Constantine, Algeria.

“Apart from putting together excellent arrangements for our games at home, they ensured we travelled in comfort to all our away games and the fact that our away travels were always direct on chartered flights made sure we had very good recovery period between games. This also helped to manage the few days we usually have because of the congested and very small number of the FIFA international days,” Rohr said.