Coach Emeka Nnamani of Nigeria’s Men Under 18 Handball team, has released his final list of players that will represent the country at the IHF Trophy Africa Men Continental Phase In Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The IHF Trophy Africa Men Continental Phase will hold at the Ethiopian Sports Academy, in Addis Ababa from the 2nd of November through to the 6th of November 2024 and the national under 18 handball team have been undergoing intensive training preparation under the watchful eyes of Coach Emeka Nnamani and Assistant Coach Joshua Olubato at the Rowe Park Sports Center, Yaba, Lagos ahead of the competition.
The team will travel on Friday morning via the Muritala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos and the Nigeria delegation will be led by Alhaji ABDULQADIR HUSSAINI MOHAMMED who is an executive board member of the Handball Federation of Nigeria (HFN) representing the North-East zone.
The list of players includes top chaps such as Captain Faruk Kareem alongside multi-talented player Azeez Suliamon Olaitan who is the MVP of the Ardova Handball Premier League 2023 and goalkeeper Samuel Obabori; all from Tojemarine Academy.
Others include Aliyu Rufai of Corrections Boys, Suliamon Sani of Niger United, Musa Mohammed of Safety Shooters and Ganiu Aduragbemi of Lagos Seasider Boys of Lagos amongst others.
Coach Emeka Nnamani said this players will make Nigeria proud at the competition as the aim is to qualify for IHF Trophy Intercontinental phase.
” These set of players are picked from a large pool of great handballing players in the under 18 category and i know they will make our country proud as they did at the zonal phase in Ghana earlier in the year” Coach Emeka said.
Nigeria’s under 18 Handball team are the defending champion of the continental phase which they won in Congo Brazzaville two years ago after which, they went on to finish third globally in the Intercontinental phase in Kosovo.
The Coach Emeka Nnamani side will represent the Africa Zone B region after defeating Ghana 33-25 to emerge as champion of the IHF Trophy Men Africa Zone 3 Phase in Accra, Ghana earlier in the year.
They will begin their IHF Trophy Africa Men Continental Phase campaign against Zambia in the Youth (under 18) category on Saturday at 3pm Nigeria time which is 5pm local time in Addis Ababa.
