World Cup
Rwanda – Nigeria clash provides a tale of two expatriate African coaches
BY KUNLE SOLAJA.
As the countdown to Rwanda versus Nigeria World Cup qualifying duel begins, a certainty is that the two teams have a common denominator.
The men who handled them when they met last year have changed duty posts and African coaches outside their countries are handling both teams.
Both coaches, Mali’s Eric Chelle for Nigeria and Algeria’s Adel Amrouche for Rwanda will be sitting on the bench for the first time with their respective teams.
Who will be a winning debutant? The actions at the Amahoro Stadium in Kigali on Friday will provide the answer.
No clash of the two teams had in the past provided a winner as all three previous duels in Kigali ended in draws.
This time, Nigeria’s Super Eagles are attempting a ‘catch-up game’ hoping to secure all three points to climb up the ladder from the bottom fifth position.
On the other hand, surprise group leaders hope to consolidate by going to 10 points to set a seven-point gap with Nigeria and follow up with another three points in the subsequent duel at home with Lesotho.
But a win by Nigeria will lower the tension on the Super Eagles who surprisingly have beaten Rwanda twice in 2004 in Abuja in a World Cup qualifier and again in Calabar in an Africa Cup of Nations qualifier.
The storms are gathering as Super Eagles set to soar again.
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Rwanda’s Algerian coach, Adel Amrouche has named a 28-man provisional list of players that will face Nigeria on Friday in Kigali and then Lesotho on Tuesday on the same ground.
He will, however, prune the squad to 23 as the countdown to the encounter with Nigeria continues.
Midfielders Hakim Sahabo and Rafael York are among the returnees to the squad of the new coach.
Amavubi’s 28-man provisional squad, which was summoned by new head coach Adel Amrouche.
The duo’s last call up was on June 11, 2024, when Amavubi defeated Lesotho 1-0 in South Africa.
They were suspended from the team by former coach Torsten Spittler due to disciplinary reasons.
Also, back to the squad is attacking midfielder Djabel Imanishimwe who plays for Naft Al Wassat in Iraq.
The former APR captain hasn’t featured for Amavubi since February 6, 2022 when he played in an AFCON qualifier against Mozambique.
Other key returnees are goalkeeper Maxime Wenssens who wasn’t selected during Amavubi’s 2025 AFCON qualifiers as well as APR shot-stopper Pierre Ishimwe who has now cemented his place as APR’s number 1.
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While the Super Eagles have just two players from the domestic league in their squad, Rwanda’s coach, Amrouche, in naming his first ever Rwandan squad has called up 13 local players and 15 others from the foreign leagues.
Nigeria will face the Group C surprise leaders in Kigali on Friday. Amrouche has handed Rutsiro FC striker Yves Habimana his debut callup following his impressive performances in the domestic league campaign, where he has scored eight goals and provided six assists so far this season.
Rwanda leads Group C of the World Cup qualifiers with seven points and a two-goal surplus after four games.
Nigeria’s Super Eagles are without a win so far and are fifth in a log of six. They have three points, four behind Rwanda and a goal deficit.
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A gathering of eagles is commonly called convocation. That will be the situation on Monday as the Super Eagles of Nigeria flock from all corners of Europe and Africa in Kigali, Rwanda.
They have a mission – to regain their esteem and put their World Cup qualifying hopes back on track.
Sports Village Square gathered that the players called up will fly directly to Kigali from their different bases while the duo of Remo Stars Kayode Bankole and Niger Tornadoes’ Papa Daniel Mustapha and the backroom staff of the team will leave from Nigeria on Monday to Kigali.
They will go aboard ValueJet, the new official airline of the team and the rest of the Nigeria national football teams.
The team has set up a camp at the Radisson Blu, which is about a 10-minute drive from the airport. It is connected to the new Kigali Convention Centre and just opposite the high-end shopping mall of Kigali Heights.
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