Super Eagles defender, Shehu Abdullahi, is now a proud father as he has welcomed a baby boy with his wife, Kannywood actress, Naja’atu Suleiman. The baby boy is the first child of the defender, who plays in the Cypriot First Division for Omonia FC.
Abdullahi took to his Instagram page to share the news with his fans by posting a picture with Suleiman, noting that the newborn and the mother were fine.
“We are thrilled to announce our baby boy, mother and baby are in good health. We thank Allah! We were blessed with the arrival of our son this morning. We appreciate your prayers,” he wrote.
The 29-year-old defender is currently on national assignment with the Super Eagle as they battle Ghana in a doubleheader fixture in the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.
Nigeria arrived in Kumasi, Ghana, for the first leg of the playoff round against the Black Stars, which kicks off at the Baba Yara Stadium at 8:30pm on Friday.
The second leg will be played at the MKO Abiola National Stadium, in Abuja on Tuesday, March 29, where the overall winner of both fixtures will pick up one of the five slots for Africa in the World Cup which will be hosted by Qatar.
The South American section of the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification acts as qualifiers for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, to be held in Qatar, for national teams which are members of the South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL). A total of 4.5 slots (4 direct slots and 1 inter-confederation play-off slot) in the final tournament are available for CONMEBOL teams.
The qualification process began on 8 October 2020 and will end in 2022. Uruguay’s Luis Suárez scored the first goal of the round-robin. This was the third time Suárez had opened scoring in the group (after 2010 and 2014), as well as the fourth consecutive time a Uruguayan player had done so (Martín Cáceres scored the first goal of the 2018 process).
On 24 January 2019, the CONMEBOL Council decided to maintain the same qualification structure used for the previous six tournaments. The ten teams will play in a league of home-and-away round-robin matches.
The fixtures were determined by a draw which was held on 17 December 2019, 10:00 PYST (UTC−3), at the Bourbon Asunción Convention Hotel in Luque, Paraguay.
Originally, Brazil and Argentina were both to be drawn into either position 4 or 5 in the draw, thus ensuring that no team has to play both of them on any double matchday. However, the decision was later reversed on 16 November 2019 by the CONMEBOL Council, making the draw completely open.
The CONMEBOL Council approved the use of the video assistant referee system for the qualifiers.
