FIFA World Cup: Nigeria land in Russia

Nigeria’s striking home kit has proved incredibly popular in the run-up to this summer’s World Cup, and they touched down in Russia with a similar sense of sartorial panache.

The Super Eagles landed in the city of Mineralnye Vody, close to the Georgian border in the far south of the country, in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

The squad arrived wearing traditional Nigerian dress, a knee-length garment with a Green Eagle embroidered into the fabric combined with matching hat and white slip-on shoes.

The outfits caused quite a stir on social media, with captain John Obi-Mikel and Leicester City midfielder Wilfred Ndidi sharing pictures of their new attire.

Nigeria are in a the difficult Group D in Russia alongside Croatia, Iceland and Argentina, with some reports suggesting their sales of their home strip have already passed the three million mark.

One exception from the uniformed clothing was 64-year-old German head coach Gernot Rohr who put the players through their paces in a training camp in Austria.

Speaking to Nigeria official Twitter account, Rohr said: “Nine days here was hardwork. Every day we had two training sessions in very good conditions, wonderful grass, the country side is nice, is clean with mountains.

“Unfortunately we had heavy rain for the match (against Czech Republic). We wanted to play on the seventh or eighth but we played on the sixth. It was too close for the England match so we had small time for recovery and for travelling and the organisation could not be made better.

“But we did the work especially after the game against Czech Republic. Everybody is fit, no injury which is the most important and they did very well. And I think everybody is much better now so it was a good preparation.”

Nigeria lost to England 2-1 at Wembley in one of their World Cup warm-up matches but their improved second-half display in that game will give cause for encouragement.