NFF confirms Argentina friendly for Super Eagles

Super Eagles of Nigeria

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), on Saturday, confirmed it has reached an agreement for the Super Eagles to play Argentina in an international friendly.

Both sides who have already booked their tickets to next year’s FIFA World Cup will square off on September 14 in the Russian city of Krasnodar.

“We have had long and fruitful talks, and we can say that we have an agreement,” NFF General Secretary, Dr Mohammed Sanusi, disclosed to the body’s official website.

“We await the approval by FIFA and also, we have to agree on the flight arrangements that would be comfortable for the players and crew.

“The match will come up on 14th November, four days after the Super Eagles’ final 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying match away to Algeria. We had offers from teams like Iran, Saudi Arabia and Morocco but we have opted for the Argentines.”

High-profile FIFA match agent, Jairo Pachon, of Eurodata Sport, also confirmed the test game.

“It was a lot of work over the past week but we are happy this has become reality,” he revealed. “We will, in due course, reveal the Nigerian sponsor of the match who will have the match rights in Nigeria.”

Nigeria have faced the Albiceleste on seven occasions, the most recent was at the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.

The South Americans have had the upper hand over the Africans, winning five of those and losing just once.

Nigeria’s solitary win was a test game in 2011.

Star-studded Argentina, led by superstar forward, Lionel Messi, are currently ranked fourth in the world.