World Cup Tallest Teams: Eagles ranked 19th

Football governing body, FIFA has ranked the Super Eagles of Nigeria as the 19th tallest team that would be going to the World Cup in Russia in June.

According to a study conducted by FIFA, the average height of the players was put at 181.2cm.

The study also revealed that 11.4 perecent of the Nigerian players were born abroad with the likes of Ola Aina, Carl Ikeme, William Troost-Ekong and Leon Balogun, while 91.4 percent represent foreign clubs.

Meanwhile First Vice President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Barrister Seyi Akinwumi has argued that the team would excel in Russia despite being the youngest team.

Akinwunmi was reacting to the FIFA survey that parades Nigeria as the lowest average age among the 32 participating nations for the World Cup.

The administrator said that experience will come with game time and the aspiration to be the best will keep driving the team.

According to the FiFA study which was conducted to find out the youngest and oldest teams for the World Cup, said Nigeria fielded the youngest team during the qualifiers, with an average age of 24.9-years-old.

The study mentioned Leicester’s City Wilfred Ndidi as the youngest player that represented Nigeria in the third round of the African World Cup qualifiers at the age of 19.

Nigeria is followed by World champions, Germany with the second youngest team (25.7), while Panama (29.4 years) and Iceland (29.0), as well as 2014 FIFA World Cup quarter-finalists Costa Rica (29.0) fielded the oldest players during the qualifiers.