Ahead NPFL Invitational: Ifeanyi Ifeanyi Confident of CHAN Eagles

Fisayo Dairo

Akwa United and Super Eagles midfielder, Ifeanyi Ifeanyi, is looking forward to a fruitful Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) Pre-Season Invitational Tournament when the competition gets underway in Kano on December 11.

Ifeanyi is a key member of both his club Akwa United and the home-based Eagles coached by Salisu Yusuff. The midfielder in a chat with www.npfl.ng underscored the importance of the tournament to the Eagles side preparing to take on the rest of Africa at the African Nations Championships in Morocco next January.

“For sure, the NPFL Invitational will prepare the CHAN Eagles for the CHAN competition next year because we will be playing against the toughest opponents in the NPFL,” stressed Ifeanyi.

“We have the top three in the league last season and the AITEO Cup winners which is my club so I know it will be difficult and it will really prepare us well for CHAN,” he added.

When the list of invited CHAN Eagles players for the tournament is released, Ifeanyi is expected to be one of the first names on the list.
The former MFM FC star also played a key role in the Flying Eagles (National Under-20 team) victory in the 2015 tournament in Abuja and expressed his desire to win this year’s tournament in addition to that.

“I’ve always loved to win every competition I’m competing for. I always love to be a winner. So I will love to win it with the CHAN Eagles after that 2015 win with the Flying Eagles.

Ifeanyi is definitely not going to be the only Akwa United player to star for the CHAN Eagles at the Kano Tournament. As much as five of them featured for the team at the last WAFU Cup Tournament in Ghana and Ifeanyi emphasizes the importance of having his club mates with him in the national team.

“It is really important and a good thing to me (to have my club mates) because these guys understand me, the way I play and move and I also understand them. So it is very good and I think it also makes the work of our coaches easier.”

The CHAN Eagles have been drawn in Group A of the six-team tournament alongside Plateau United and Enyimba. They will face league champions Plateau United in their first match of the competition on Wednesday, December 13.

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