Players and officials of Nigeria’s Super Eagles will have jetted out to Faro, Portugal, to begin the final phase of preparations for the 29^th Africa Cup of Nations holding Jan. 19 – Feb. 10 in South Africa.

The senior national team will depart for their Faro camp via Accra, Ghana. They had their last training session in Abuja this afternoon.

Coach Stephen Keshi has announced that the 23-man list for the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations will be released on Tuesday, January 8 in Faro – a day ahead of the deadline set by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) for the release of squads.

“The final list will be released on January 8 (2013) at our training camp in Portugal. We would have ascertained the level of fitness, form and mental state of the players in the provisional list by that time,” Keshi told Supersport.

A week earlier, Keshi is to match out his squad against Catalonia of Spain in an international friendly match on January 2.

“I hear that 10 players from Barcelona will be part of the team that will confront the Super Eagles. That is great news and it’s an opportunity for them to show that they have the capacity to play against the best footballers in the world,” Keshi told journalists at the Federal Capital Territory, FCT in Abuja, Nigeria on Boxing Day.

The Nigeria coach, who gave a comprehensive overview of how their training went ahead of the 2013 AFCON, said the home-based stars gave a good account of themselves during their camping in Abuja.

•Photo: The Super Eagles.