After flying for about 22 hours, the Falconets of Nigeria on Wednesday arrived Papua New Guinea to a rousing welcome ahead of the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup.
The players and officials who left Nigeria Sunday, landed at the Jackson’s International Airport at Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea at 4:24am local time, aboard Air Niugini flight from Singapore.
Nigeria arrived for the biennial FIFA tournament behind Germany, Brazil, Spain, Sweden and Korea Republic, who touched down on Tuesday.
FIFA officials and Local Organising Committee members were on ground to receive the team and guided players and officials in the procurement of visas at point of entry.
Despite the early morning arrival of Nigeria, locals turned out in large numbers at the airport singing, dancing and waving a giant Nigerian flag in welcome of the 2014 silver winning team.
The players and officials were driven in a convoy to the Crowne Plaza Hotel, located approximately 20 minutes drive from the Jackson’s International airport.
The team completed their check-in procedure at the hotel by 6am and had breakfast by 7am local time.
Meanwhile, the local media in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea celebrated the arrival of Nigeria to their country by flashing photographs of two Falconets’ players in their papers.
The country’s highest circulating newspaper, Papua New Guinea Post Courier, gave Belarus-based Aminat Yakubu the pride of place on their back page with a big action picture of her in Nigerian jersey.
Inside the sports pages, the paper had another action picture of Kazakhstan-based Chinwendu Ihezuo in Nigerian Jersey with the caption: “Nigeria’s Ihezuo to enthrall all in Papua New Guinea.”
The paper, which has been in circulation since 1969, while giving the arrival of other World Cup teams a mention in their analysis, described Falconets as Group B favourites who could become the home crowd’s darling team when the tournament gets underway on November 13.
Meanwhile, Falconets defied jet lag and had their first training on Wednesday afternoon.
The team trained for two hours from 2:30pm to 4:30pm.
Football Falconets arrive Papua New Guinea
