Five –time world champions Nigeria will set out on course for another title on Wednesday when they depart the country for the Ghanaian city of Cape Coast, where they will participate in the Seven-Nation WAFU B U17 Championship that begins on Saturday.
The two finalists from the tournament in Cape Coast will represent the WAFU B zone at the Africa U17 Cup of Nations billed for Algeria early next year, from where all four semi finalists will qualify for the FIFA U17 World Cup finals in Peru.
Nigeria, with five world titles in the kitty, and three –time world champions and hosts Ghana will set the tournament rolling on Saturday with a potentially –explosive encounter at the Stade Cape Coast starting from 4pm Ghana time (5pm Nigeria time).
Coach Nduka Ugbade, who has kept his eyes on the ball and his hands on the plough for several weeks screening and training the lads at the FIFA Goal Project, Abuja, says his objective is to earn a ticket to the AFCON finals in Algeria.
“I am happy with the squad that we have been able to come up with, and I can say confidently that we are going to Ghana to do the nation proud. Our primary objective is to earn a ticket to the Africa Cup of Nations, and then we go full throttle for the trophy. Nigeria have a pedigree in U17 football and we cannot afford to disappoint.”
Ugbade, who captained the squad that won the first of Nigeria’s five world titles at this level, has picked 20 players for the campaign that will last until 24th June, with five more players on standby.
Read Also: ‘I’m Yet To Recover From 2022 World Cup Disappointment’ —Ajayi
The Golden Eaglets are in Group A of the competition, with a second match against Togo’s U17 boys on Tuesday next week, also at the Stade Cape Coast.
GOLDEN EAGLETS FOR WAFU B U17 CHAMPIONSHIP IN CAPE COAST
Goalkeepers: Richard Odoh, Hameed Balogun, Pascal Uzoho
Defenders: Jeremiah Olaleke, Emmanuel Michael, Tochukwu Ogboji, Yahaya Lawal, Miracle Ogwor
Midfielders: Basil Mbata, Ebube Okere, Tochukwu Ogbabido, Richard Uche, Ozor Okeke, Raphael Oyebanjo
Forwards: Umar Abubakar, Kevwe Iyede, Light Eke, Abubakar Abdullahi, Jubril Azeez, Precious Williams
Standby: Utibe Silas, Abdullahi Buhari, Abubakar Shaibu, Tijjani Mohammed, Stephen Emmanuel
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COMMENTS
Such a young squad
That’s the picture of the previous Eaglets team. You can see Amoo on the far right
I read some where that one of the goal keepers, Pascal Uzoho is the younger brother to our current number one keeper Francis Uzoho. If this is true, I will love to see him progress along the line as time goes. You never can tell with the necessary support and right development, we might one day have 2 keepers in the the senior national team as rivals and team mate.
Away from Uzoho and his brother, am seeing photo of too young and slim looking Golden Eagles players. I do hope and pray that the other West African countries coming to the tour will have same young and under age players and not grandpas of 35 years being paraded as under-17.
I wish the Golden Eaglets good luck and a successful tournament.
The players on the photo are the golden eaglets class of 2019.
On the far left is Akinkumi Amoo.
Oops! meant to say far right
In a season when Nigeria’s underage teams across gender have witnessed tremendous tournaments qualification success, Nduka Ugbade’s Golden Eaglets hope to apply the final piece of the puzzle to the jigsaw.
The female Under-17 and Under-20 teams qualfied for their respective world cups in audacious manner by dismantling all oppositions they came against. Then Bosso’s Flying Eagles blew everyone away with their swashbuckling brand of football that sealed 2023 Afcon qualification.
What is left now is for Ugbade’s Under-17 to successfully navigate the Wafu Zone B Cup thereby making it 4 out of 4 qualification successes for Nigeria’s underage teams in 2022.
And Nduka Ugbade seems fired up to prime and unleash a squad that is expected to do the nation proud.
“The team you will get is surely going to be more; they won’t be just Golden Eaglets but they will be Super Eaglets,” said coach Ugbade to thenationonline.ng
“You are going to see everything – strength and speed, intelligence; most importantly and a lot of creativity.” He concluded.
Well, we fans don’t have long to wait. Saturday is just round the corner with Ghana as the first opponents and then Togo later on in the week. Hopefully the players will put their boots where Ugbade’s mouth is.
It is not going to be easy though.
With the disadvantages of late preparations and then trimming over 40 players down to the required number for the tournament, Nduka Ugbade has his work cut out.
But he remains buoyant and optimistic. The former Golden Eaglet himself is hoping his team can rekindle and reproduce the sort of performances that brought greatness to Nigeria at this stage in years gone by.
“We are working very hard to have a formidable team to represent the nation and so the boys are working hard for us to get that (past) glory back.” Said Ughade.
All eyes will be on the former MFM coach to make good on his statements. The 52 year old gaffer was not first choice to lead the Golden Eaglets but he eventually got his chance.
Hopefully he will make the very best use of it.
I wish the Eaglets good luck in Ghana.
U20, U21 and U23teams of other countries are scattered all over flash score playing friendlies and smaller tournament like Toulon. Even few African countries like Algerian junior teams are keeping taps. What is Nigeria doing? Waiting for miracle on match days and depending on the talent of foreign Borns? What a useless NFF.
Why blame the NFF, why not blame CAF, do we run the same calendar with Europe. The toulon tournament is at the discretion of the organizers who to invite. Abeg lets enjoy what the Eaglets have to offer on saturday
Nduka Ugbade speaks with a forked tongue. A few weeks ago he was complaining the Group had been gutted and depleted by MRI weeding out over-aged players. Suddenly he’s now saying he has a fantastic squad.
I wish this new Team, Coach and Nigeria the best of luck in the forth coming tournament to take place in Ghana.
I wish further that,this team will produce more Mikel, Oseimeh, Kelechi, Success, Uzohor, Ndidi, Omeruah, Amao etc