THE ARSENAL TRIO VISITS NIGERIA

The Arsenal players (Photo Source: Bada Akintunde J)

Over the weekend, the trio of Bacary Sagna, Per Mertesacker and Lukas
Podolski of Arsenal FC of England were in Nigeria to meet with a
select group of fans, at the Malta Guinness Low Sugar Workout launch
in Lagos.

Czech midfielder, Tomas Rosicky who was scheduled to come along,
pulled out of the trip, after sustaining an injury in a pre-season
game.

The Gunners who arrived in Lagos on Saturday morning, were taught
steps of the rave-of-the-moment Azonto dance, by Guinness World Record
holding dancer, Kaffy and her crew, at the launch which took place at
the Ball Room of the popular Eko Hotel, on Sunday.

They were presented Nigerian national team shirts, bearing their
names, upon arrival at their hotel and another with Arsenal manager,
Arsene Wenger's name on it, too

Speaking on the experience, Sagna, described the visit to Nigeria as
wonderful, saying he hoped to visit again next year.

"I am quite happy to be here (Nigeria); it's a homecoming for me. I'm
back to my roots because I am black and from Senegal," Sagna said.

"Even if I am not Nigerian, we are all brothers; we are blacks.
Hopefully I will be part of the team when they visit again next year."

On his part, Mertesacker hailed former Arsenal striker Nwankwo Kanu,
saying African players were very technical.

"I have only watched Kanu on TV and I believe he can be a role model
to us at Arsenal. I played against a player like Chinedu Obasi in the
Bundesliga; he is very technical, strong and quick," he said.

Meanwhile, Malta Guiness Head of Innovation, Sola Oke, said there were
plans to bring the entire Gunners team to the country in future.

He said, "The rest of the squad are currently on pre-season tour; they
all can't be here at the same time. But sometime in the future, we
will be bringing the team back to Nigeria again because of our
partnership as the official malt drink of the club."

Meanwhile, the rest of the Arsenal senior team were at the time of the
event, being held to a 2-2 draw by Kitchee SC of Hong Kong, in China.

The English Premier League (EPL) team had been scheduled to play in
Nigeria his summer before the trip was cancelled due to certain
complexities in logistics.














Photo:Bada Akintunde J

Story: CitizensPlatform