Two Nigerians of South West extraction Toheeb Balogun and Abiola Abdulyekeen have been mobilising the Sub-Saharan African community in Tangier to support Nigeria’s Super Eagles at the ongoing African Nations Championship in Morocco.
The Eagles have played two of their three games so far in Tangier and also have a quarterfinal clash with Angola in the same city on Sunday.
Our Chief Football Writer FISAYO DAIRO sighted the Nigerian duo within the vicinity of the Grand Stade de Tanger, venue of Sunday’s game on Saturday. Balogun, a Masters student in Arabic at the Abdelmalek Essaadi University disclosed that they have been watching the Eagles since their opener against Rwanda.
“We have always come here to watch the Super Eagles. It is a real pleasure to have them here in Morocco and we are happy with what they have done so far,” Balogun told www.aclsports.com
Balogun showed us a pack of match tickets they got for Sunday’s game which they procured (albeit for free) for their friends whom they have been mobilising to watch the Eagles’ game.
“Some are Moroccans, some are West Africans, but they all love Nigeria’s team so we came here to get the tickets so all of us can be there tomorrow (Sunday),” added Abdulyekeen, a senior secondary student of Arabic in Tanger.
The Nigerian team have not been ungrateful for the support they have received in Tangier as they went towards the far stand to appreciate them after the win against Libya.
About last night in Tangier…
Thousands of Moroccans turned up to support @NGSuperEagles while others supported Libya.
The Eagles were appreciative of this and went to acknowledge their own after the game.
Voice of @FisayoDairo#SoarEaglesSoar #YourSportsMemo #CHAN2018 pic.twitter.com/nR2eZciPel
— ACLSports (@acl_sports) January 20, 2018
The team’s head coach Salisu Yusuf has also always expressed his gratitude for their support during press conferences in Tanger.
It is expected that the Eagles who won their Group C with seven points from three games will not lack such supportership in their game against Angola on Sunday evening.
Fisayo Dairo reporting from Tangier, Morocco
