Nigeria will battle Cameroon, Ethiopia, Guinea, Madagascar, and Zambia for glory at the 2024 IHF U-18 Men’s Trophy Africa (Youth and Junior), which will take place in Ethiopia from 2nd to 6th of November.
A total of 16 players are currently in camp rounding up preparations for the competition that is expected to serve as a qualification event for the Intercontinental Phase of the IHF Trophy.
The team is made up of home-based players, who ply their trade in the Ardova Handball Premier League.
Seven players from Tojemarine HC, three from Lagos Seasiders HC, two Safety Shooters HC players, and one each from Sokoto Rima, Niger United as well as COAS Shooters made up the list.
The team’s coach, Emeka Nnamani is confident that they can make Nigeria proud in Ethiopia.
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”.
Nigeria won the last edition of the competition in Ivory Coast in 2022.
