Nigeria Golden Eaglets have arrived Santiago, Chile for the FIFA U-17 World Cup billed for October 17 to November 8.
According to a press statement released by the Nigeria Football Federation, the young Eagles flew into Santiago from their pre-World Cup camp base in Buenos Aires at 8:20pm local time on Tuesday (which is early hours of Wednesday in Nigeria (12:20 am), aboard a Lan Airlines flight.
Nigeria go into this tournament as defending champions after winning the previous edition in United Arab Emirates in 2013, but has never successfully defended her title.
Coach Emmanuel Amuneke is eager to break that jinx by becoming the first gaffer to lead the country to back-to-back titles at the cadre level.
“We are here to defend the trophy,” he said.
"We are here with new players who want to write their own history and we are looking forward to our first game against the United States of America, which is very important for us."
Nigeria scored 23 en route to winning the 2013 edition - thereby smashing the record of most goals scored by a team in a single tournament.
And current Eaglets marksman, Victor Osimhen, believes the team is capable of surpassing the feat of their predecessor by going all out to win a record fifth title.
“We are here to win,” said Osimhen who is Golden Eaglets' top scorer with 39 goals in 71 cumulative international and local matches.
"Just as the coach said, we are here to write our own story as a team and players."
Nigeria with four titles and three Runners-up is the tournament's most successful nation followed by Brazil and Ghana.
They team is drawn in group A alongside host Chile, European giants Croatia and the USA.
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