A total of 16 players are currently in camp ahead of the 2024 IHF U18 Men’s Trophy Africa in Ethopia, www.aclsports.com reports. The 2024 IHF Trophy Africa (Youth and Junior) will be staged in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from 2nd to 6th of November.
The event serves as a qualification event for the Intercontinental Phase of the IHF Trophy. Nigeria is grouped alongside Cameroon, Ethiopia, Guinea, Madagascar, and Zambia.
Head coach of Nigeria U18 Youth Handball Team, Emeka Nnamani told www.aclsports.com that the team consists of strictly home-based players who featured in the Ardova Handball Premier League.
Nnamani revealed that seven Tojemarine HC players, three Lagos Seasiders HC players, two Safety Shooters HC players, and one each from Sokoto Rima, Niger United as well as COAS Shooters made up the list.
He said, “This is another opportunity for young handball players to showcase Nigeria to the world. If you look at the current crops of players in the senior national team, you will notice that they started from the U18 and featured at the IHF Africa/Intercontinental Trophy.
“I am going to work with these new set of players in camp to ensure they play as a team (not individually) and put Nigeria on the map again. I want to commend the President of the Handball Federation of Nigeria, Sam Ocheho for focusing on the younger players.
“The Ardova Handball Premier League former known as Prudent Energy Handball League has produced a large chunk of players who have made the country proud and International Championships with some of them securing deals outside the shores of Africa”.
Coach Emeka Nnamani will be assisted by Joshua Ayo.
