Super Eagles head coach, Jose Peseiro will submit his final 23-man squad for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations on Wednesday, January 3, 2024, it has been revealed.
The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has directed all the 24 countries that will be participating in the biennial competition to submit their final squads 10 days before the start of the competition.
Peseiro and the other coaches are also expected to submit a 55-man provisional squad before the end of the year.
Cote d’Ivoire will host the competition from January 13 to February 11.
Nigeria have been placed in Pot 2 for the draw. The draw ceremony will be held in Abidjan on Thursday, October 12. The Super Eagles were eliminated in the Round of 16 at the last AFCON by the Carthage Eagles of Tunisia.
Nigeria could face AFCON holders Senegal, hosts Cote d’Ivoire, Algeria, Tunisia and Egypt in the group stage.
Nigeria last won the competition in 2013 when it was hosted by South Africa.
Nigeria’s Super Eagles drop to 40th in FIFA rankings
Super Eagles of Nigeria have dropped a place in the latest FIFA Coca-Cola world ranking.
The Super Eagles who were ranked 39th in the rankings released in June, lost three points and dropped to 40th despite their 6-0 victory against Sao Tome and Principe in their last game of the AFCON qualifiers.
The ranking was published on FIFA’s official website on Thursday, 21 September 2023.
In Africa, the Super Eagles are sixth behind 2022 FIFA World Cup semi-finalists Morocco (1st), 2021 AFCON winners Senegal (2nd), Tunisia (3rd), Algeria (4th) and Egypt (5th).
World champions Argentina tightened their grip at the top of the ranking thanks to a 1-0 win against Ecuador and a 3-0 away success against Bolivia in their opening FIFA World Cup 2026 qualifiers.
Second-place France lost some ground on Argentina after suffering a 2-1 friendly defeat against Germany.
Brazil (3rd), England (4th), and Belgium (5th) retain their places in the top five that remain unchanged from the July 2023 edition of the global ranking.
Croatia are in 6th, the Netherlands occupies 7th and Portugal are (8th, the only team amongst the top ten to climb a position.
Italy in 9th slip down a spot after having been held to a 1-1 draw away to North Macedonia in the sides’ UEFA EURO 2024 qualifier.
Former World Cup and three-time European champions Spain complete the top-ten line-up.
