The Golden Eaglets on Wednesday began screening in preparation for their U-17 WAFU tournament in Ghana under the supervision of new coach, Nduka Ugbade.
The WAFU tournament which serves as the qualifiers for 2023 U-17 AFCON in Algeria, will take place in Cape Coast, Ghana, from June 11 to 24 2022. And only the two finalists of the tournament will qualify for the U-17 AFCON.
Nigeria’s Golden Eaglets are Group A alongside hosts Ghana and Togo. Group B has Cote d’Ivoire, Benin Republic, Burkina Faso and Niger Republic.
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As many as 100 young players tried their luck in Wednesday morning’s session headed by Ugbade with all his assistants in attendance.
Training took place at the FIFA Goal Project in Package B of the Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (MKO) Abiola Natilnal Stadium in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in Abuja.
The youngsters hope to follow in the footsteps of former Golden Eaglets stars such as Nwankwo Kanu, Victor Osimhen and Kelechi Iheanacho who used the U-17s as a launch pad to fame and fortune in Europe.
Ugbade himself made history when he captained the country to win the inaugural U-17 world championship in China back in 1985, a whopping 37-years ago.
The Golden Eaglets who are five-time world champions will be in Ghana in June for a sub-regional tournament that will serve as qualifiers for the 2023 U-17 African Cup of Nations (AFCON) which will be hosted by Algeria.
8 Comments
Nigeria and chaos. 100 players for a competition that starts in a matter of weeks. This isn’t how to select national team players. NFF should stop this madness and come up with a strong grassroot programme. Majority of Nigetia’s U-17 players should come from a standing, well groomed u-15 , u-16 teams. Exceptional talents can join them from other sources, but not this chaotic arrangement. Im sure, if this team fails, NFF will come up with their usual grammar to decieve us. I wish Ugbade well.
Oga, simply put we don’t have the structure. He needs to find his path!
This kind of arrangement is What one can easily refer to as emergency response. This is not a question of finding his path. Of course he will, even if it didn’t end well. The question is how long are we going to continue repeating the same mistake? In another 2 years, it wil come to the coach finding his path again. Like, it’s pure madness. Bro, did you notice that since the introduction of MRI scan, Nigeria has struggled to perform at the u-17 level. Last time we did anything meaningful was 2015. And that team was an offshoot of 2013 set which also did so well. But the point is both teams were developed from Lulu’s u-13 and u-15 programmes which Pinnick perpetuated for some time. So, its not a surprise that the supply chain has ceased which has robbed off negatively on the subsequent teams. The 2017 and 2019 etd were nothing but a concoction of mediocrity. I’m more passionate about Nigeria’s junior teams than even the SEs. They have been the greatest supplier of top quality players, not only to A-list European teams but to the national senior national team. And many of them get this opportunities when thrh perform well st FIFA age grade competitions. Top clubs ship them into their academies, and before you know it, you start hearing their names in epl and champions league matches. It’s because we aren’t producing a good number of them these days that makes the nff rely so much on nigerian players born and bred abroad. If this trend continues, I foresee a time when Nigeria wil struggle to have a single home-grown player in epl or champions league. And thatof course will weaken the national team and throw us into the backwaters of World football. Grassroot development should a key focus of NFF not this rubbish they are doing.
We are not even 100 we are more than 900… Players are being picked with faces, some players were not given opportunity to show themselves. They sent us away coz our club or academy is not even as recognized as the others. Even coach himself calls some players by name coz he’s been to their academy or club before. Even the assistants, physio and some staffs have some players amongst the selection. It’s unfair. We should be able to serve our nation without necessarily able to know people. We all want a career for ourselves..
How many Nigeria young stars can find their way to Abuja.
Great talents are in the towns and cities across Nigeria.
If it’s not the fire brigade approach we are using, I expect the coaching crew to also vist cities like Uyo and Lagos to make it easy for more talented young players to show their skills. Using abuja alone haa already eliminated a lot of young stars from participating in this talent hunt.
Good luch Mr. Coach.
Exactly!!! I came all the way from Lagos to this place I haven’t been given enough time. But some players didn’t even play well and they were picked coz they were told by somebody to tell coach that he/she sent them.
Nduka Ugbade did not invite 100 boys.They came to try their luck in the absence of a national junior league. Hopefully a few of them could be very good. Nobody knows.
NFF and it’s fire brigade approach, another failure is looming again. Why should the screening takes place in abuja alone despite many talented players around the country