Head Coach Isa Ladan Bosso has picked his 20 -man squad that will contest for the WAFU B Cup of Nations title at the tournament taking place in Porto Novo, Benin Republic next month.
The competition, which holds 5th – 20th December, will also serve as the qualifying tournament for the 2021 U20 Africa Cup of Nations that will be staged in Mauritania.
The team is resplendent with players from former national youth sides fused with discoveries from the grassroots.
Abia Warriors goalkeeper Chibueze Lambert leads a cast that includes the trio of Wisdom Ubani, Charles Etim and Peter Olawale who played for the Golden Eaglets at the last FIFA U17 World Cup finals in Brazil.
Plateau United’s duo of Mike Zaruma and Nenrot Silas also made the cut while Kwara United’s Christopher Nwaeze, Isaiah Ejeh and Farayola Olawale are also in the mix.
Hapoel Ranana of Israel attacker Peter Olawale and centre back Temitayo Ereku from Brookhouse Academy in the United Kingdom are the only foreign-based players listed in the squad.
Nigeria starts her campaign at the tournament on 6th December at the Stade de Galles in Porto Novo, Benin Republic.
THE FULL LIST
Goalkeepers: John Amah (Box2Box FC), Chibueze Lambert (Abia Warriors), Kolawole Oladipo (Crown FC)
Defenders: Temitayo Ereku (Brookhouse Academy), Charles Etim (Blessed Stars), Mike Zaruma (Plateau United), Christopher Nwaeze (Kwara United), Moses Solomon (Calabar Rovers), Isaiah Ejeh (Kwara United), Jimmy Abdul (MFM)
Midfielders: Oladoye Adewale (Water FC), Liameed Quadri (36 Lions), Muhammad Abdallah (Nasarawa United), Azeez Oseni (36 Lions)
Attackers: Chisom Orji (Collins Edwin), Wisdom Ubani (Giant Brillas), Farayola Olawale (Kwara United), Chukwubuikem Ikwuemesi (Giant Brillas), Nenrot Silas (Plateau United), Peter Olawale (Hapoel Ranana, Israel)
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COMMENTS
I was expecting TIJANI SAMSON, AMOO & Olusegun to be in this squad….
Wisdom Ubani Likes dribble too much…. unless he has changed that his U17 attitude….
Wisdom Ubani will be the star of the tournament.
_Can Ladan Bosso mastermind wafu win?_
The Flying Eagles of Nigeria face an uphill task in trying to qualify for next year’s Under-20 world cup as they have to first navigate a brutal zonal qualifier.
In the pre-qualifying WAFU B Cup taking place this December in Benin Republic, Bosso’s boys will do battle against heavyweights Ghana and Ivory Coast with only 1 victor qualifying for the Under-20 Africa Cup of Nations – this has been billed to take place in Mauritania between February and March 2021.
From that Afcon tournament, the top 4 teams will qualify for the World Cup in Indonesia to be held between 20 May and 12 June 2021.
Coach Bosso recently released a list of 20 players (listed in the article above) expected to make it out of the WAFU B tournament in December. The roll call looks promising with players drawn from the domestic league, previous Under-17 squad and also 2 based abroad.
The Flying Eagles have been playing tune-up matches with results reported to be overwhelmingly positive.Examples of these are the thrashing of Horvel Prime Academy 4:0 in Abuja and the victory over Tripple 44 Football Club 3:0 both recently,to mention but a few.
In the last WAFU B tournament 2 years ago, Nigeria overcame noisy neighbours Ghana and Niger in Group B and then brushed Mali aside in the semi-finals before losing 2:0 to Senegal in the final.
Nigeria still qualified for the Afcon as second to Senegal.
Just like last time, only 1 team will progress from the group of 3 and Bosso will be plotting for his boys to claim the singular 1 million dollars ticket.
Niger Republic, Benin Republic and Burkina Faso will slug it out for the sole ticket in WAFU Group A.
Coach Ladan Bosso already wants Nigeria fans to expect a formidable, battle-ready U-20 outfit worthy of overcoming daunting odds.
“Our goal is to build a solid team before the tournament,” said the coach recently.
“We will continue our physical and tactical routines and engage in more friendly matches to fine tune our strategies for the battle ahead.” End of quote.
Nigeria’s curtain raiser comes on 6th December.
Ghana and Ivory Coast have also reportedly stepped up their efforts in ensuring either of them comes out victorious.
Being a veteran coach in the NPFL and also a former Nigeria Under-20 world cup coach, fans are hoping Bosso’s experience and expertise, the pedigree of invited players and recent encouraging results in tune up matches will contribute to seeing the Flying Eagles through what is indeed a tricky WAFU pre-qualifying group.
When it was announced that Bosso would take over as the coach of the Flying Eagles in September this year (13 years after leading the same age grade set up the world cup) the appointment was met with a resigned shrug of the shoulders by many Nigeria fans who were disappointed in the NFF for what they saw as the recycling of known coaches with uninspiring Curriculum Vitaes.
Bosso now has a chance to win over skeptics starting with his team’s performance in December’s WAFU B Cup.
Enjoy your piece of shit broo.
**EDITED**
I consider the current format adopted by both CAF/WAFU as a direct affront on WEST AFRICA who have brought CAF more glory in football at age grade levels and must be protested against for a change…
Imagine at least 2 or more of either Ghana,senegal,mali,Ivory coast risk not being at the next WYC U17/U20… A huge disservice to African football…
My take is return to the old format or pit teams against each other in a direct elimination format of home and away basis to determine the best to represent africa just like the WCQs
I consider the current format adopted by both CAF/WAFU as a direct affront on WEST AFRICA who have brought CAF more glory in football at age grade levels and must be protested against for a change…
Imagine at least 2 or more of either Ghana,senegal,mali,Ivory coast risk not being at the next WYC U17/U20… A huge disservice to African football…
My take is return to the old format or pit teams against each other in a direct elimination format of home and away basis to determine the best to represent africa just like the WCQs
I hope Lassen Bosso isn’t putting the greed for moni over talent.
There are a couple of callups that should raise eyebrows in my opinion. Peter Olawale (Hapoel Ranana) and Temitayo Ereku (Brookhouse Academy). Again am not in anyway accusing Bosso of corruption but how did these 2 make the list considering they are foreign based players (whose clubs won’t likely release them for atleast a month to train with their local counterparts), when did they train with the team? All the friendly matches the u20 has played, there hasn’t been any mention the name of either duo. Did their respective club and academy send them to 9ja to be camped with the local guys who were persecuting the qualifiers? How long (if at all) did their clubs release them for, to allow Bosso to assess whether they were better than the young local Boys they will be replacing? Peter olayinka played for the last u17 that crashed out to Netherland, he could be a decent player but I don’t recall him been present in any of the tune up games the flying eagles have played, so is the Ereku guy. So what was the basis of dia selection? I sincerely hope am wrong that moni didn’t exchange hands and talented players aren’t dropped due to lack of finances or not knowing someone in the NFF to help push dia case. I really hope am wrong. Bosso has been churning out good results lately, it will be bad if a deserving player were dropped for another due to any other reason than talent and hardwork. Again am not accusing the coach as I am not in camp, I hope he selected the team based on merit, he shouldn’t later say certain players were forced on him by NFF ooo. Just my take.
See this link from owngoal saying corruption in Golden Eaglets camp.