Completesports.com’s ADEBOYE AMOSU appraises the performance of the Flying Eagles, player-by-player, in their 2019 U-20 Africa Cup of Nations Group A clash with hosts Niger at the Seyni Kountche Stadium Niamey …
OLAWALE OREMADE 6/10
The lanky goalkeeper was busier than in the Flying Eagles’ previous game against South Africa but did well to keep another clean sheet for the third time in the competition.
MIKE ZARUMA 5/10
Received a yellow card for his troubles. The right-back put in an average showing in the game.
JAMES OZORNWAFOR 6/10
Another spirited showing from the towering centre-back. Ozornwafor helped ward off the threats of the Nigerien forwards especially in the second half.
IGOR OGBU 6/10
Came close to breaking the deadlock for Nigeria in the second half but his well placed header was parried into safety by the opposition goalkeeper. He formed a good partnership with Ozornwafor at the heart of Flying Eagles’ defence.
IKOUEWEN UDOH 5/10
Performed his defensive task dutifully, but didn’t offer much up front. Yet to show his class in the competition.
ADAMU ALHASSAN 6/10
Scored the decisive goal for the Flying Eagles in the game. A better showing from the midfielder compare to the previous game against South Africa.
Also Read: U-20 AFCON: Nigeria Pip Niger To Book Semis, World Cup Tickets
IBRAHIM ALIYU 5/10
Handed his first start of the competition in the place of Afeez Aremu but didn’t contribute much to the Flying Eagles’ overall performance. He was replaced by Adeshina Gata late in the game.
IBRAHIM ABUBAKAR 4/10
Another subdued performance from the winger. He was replaced by Maxwell Effiom in the 76th minute.
MUHAMMAD JAMIL 5 / 10
Had a tough afternoon coping with the physical Nigeriens. Not at his best all through.
ANIEKEME OKON 5/10
Another player who was handed his first start of the competition. Didn’t do his chances much harm following a battling display.
NAZIFI YAHAYA 5/10
Fluffed a glorious chance early on. The forward was left isolated upfront and didn’t have much service from the Flying Eagles’ midfielders.
SUBSTITUTES
MAXWELL EFFIOM 4/10
Didn’t affect the game much following his introduction for the largely ineffective Ibrahim Abubakar.
ADESHINA GATA
Late substitute for Ibrahim Aliyu. Not Rated
AFEEZ AREMU
Not Rated
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COMMENTS
A very impressive performance. I like the boys’ very quick reaction to second balls, their speed when moving from defence to attack and short quick passes in tight spaces. But they looked confused in the final third and often get in the way of one another. Credit must go to the defence however and the goalkeeper has very nice ball distributing qualities. Pray the coach looks into all these and give us a better performance in the knockout stage.
Only the goalkeeper and the two central defenders are worth serious attention in this team. None of the midfielders and attackers deserve promotion to even the bench of the under 23s. And I hope this not the team that will represent us at the world cup. First they are too old, second they are too slow.
Flying Eagles’ albatross has hitherto been lack of bite upfront. Working hard from behind to the front only for the strikers to become lilly-livered at finishing point. It’s Providence that gave them an edge over the apparently more determined Nigerien striking force. They need much greater confidence & focus for them to reach the final & win the cup. Best wishes though.
Am feeling ashamed self, they are too old for under 20s, the goal keeper is properly 35 years
If you are assuming then you are wrong? But if you evidence to prove your claim pls indulge me
If we want to judge by the look, there’s no nation in this competition that presented a truly u-20 team. No nation! Even in the SA team many claim is young, I’ve seen a lot of players who look 24, 25. But again, It’s a big problem, Bro. And it has remained with us for a long time. Let’s just enjoy our football and not overanalyze. Otherwise, we could all end up having emotional paralysis because it’s too annoying.
The question is, do most of those players deserve a shrit on the team or were they just called up based on kick backs, politics, sentiments and tribal affiliations, honestlty, I smell a rat. There is something fishing about this team, it lacks the spark that Nigerian teams are known for.
Very old men masquerading as under 20s,if any of these players is below 25 then am under 30..
Tomorrow we will be expecting them to mature not knowing that they are already at retirement age,we should keep fooling ourselves..
Bros i tire ooo. We don’t know that we are destroying our football. Who ever remembers the winners of the U20 World Cup. It doesn’t even have an impact on the FIFA ranking. It should just be about producing a pool of quality TRUELY YOUNG players who could represent us for at least a decade. If other African countries want to cheat its up to them. It’s their funeral. We should think of becoming a world power not a world “youth” power.
Nawa o!.. if Moses can be 27 and we agree, Musa is 24 and we agree, Ekong 23,kalu 21, Agu 21,Success 21,Chukwueze 19 and we all agreed..then let’s enjoy our football and leave story. Wait for the world cup and see wonders from the South American Teams. Let everybody go back and see okocha and Mikel when they both claimed 20-22. Wether they lied or not, they served us for long.
Add Kanu to that list who – to me – may not have been 17 in the 1993 u-17 world cup but still went on to serve the national team for a mammoth 16 years having made his senior national team debut in 1994 and retired in 2010.
We managed to milk out 11 years out of Wilson Orunma (1995-2006).
Celestine Banbayaro served the national team with distinction for 9 solid years between 1995 and 2004.
Kenneth Omeruo could have been on his 8th year of senior national team football service but a delay of 2 years means his senior service – which started in 2013 – is on its 6th year. Barring injuries or a dramatic loss of form, expect us to be able to milk at least 3 more years off Omeruo for national team service.
All the aforementioned players have age-cheat rumour clouds hanging over their respective u-17 days, yet we managed to get years off them for national team service.
Age-cheating, like any other discrepancy, is to be condemned.
However, until such a time when irrefutable evidence comes to light regarding the age of our players, I think it will be wise to temper our criticism for now and just enjoy the football.
The boys clearly look older but, the good ones among them may yet go on to serve us for many years to come!
Deo, most of the guys you mentioned were/are truly young. I schooled in Owerri the same period as Kanu, in fact I was 3 years ahead in class. At the most Kanu is 2 years older than claimed. Okocha went to Nike Grammar School and finished in 1990, so do the math. Okocha played with his accurate age. If you are 25 and claim 18 you are at your peak and can’t get better, so even if you play for another 11 years, it would be with mediocre teams. We can’t depend on such to become a world class footballing nation.
Agreed!!
Going by looks, none of these guys is under 20. The average real age is probably more like 27. Won’t surprise me if some of them are in their early 30s.
@deo…Twale! U got my point bro.
Adisboy, thank you for your entry.
Quoting you, “at least Kanu is 2 years older than claimed”.
If that is the case, then, by the letter of the law, he was an age-cheat period!
Either you falsify your credentials by 10 days or 10 years, you are still a fraudster.
By and large, in fact, in its totality I agree with all the contents of your contribution.
All I am saying is that: until such a time when we can eliminate age-cheating (even by adding only 2 years), I will enjoy the football.
Julius Aghaowa (remember him?). After his “under 21” days in 1999, we only got 2 years of peak national team service from him (2000-2002). The remaining 4 years (2002-2006) were years of decline.
But (and this is my point): whether he was truly under-21 or not in 1999, we thoroughly enjoyed the 2 years of senior football that we got out of him.
Between 2000 and 2002, he gave me some wonderful memories that will live with me all my days as a Super Eagles fan.
When he faded, others took over.
I think we should condemn all forms of discrepancies however, until such a time when a revolutionary solution (like MRI testing) gets introduced to Under-20 football, me I will enjoy the football, celebrate the victories and be measured in my allegations of age-cheating.
Deo,I wrote “at most 2 years” not “at least” so I can’t conclude that Kanu was an age cheat as they could have been boys in his class of 1991 born in 1976, however what ever it is we have to eradicate it from our football if we truly aim to be a world power. What baffles me is how the media does absolutely no stories on our national team players were these could fears could be put to rest. Nobody can tell me that it is that difficult in this digital age to verify the background of someone born in 1999. Meanwhile Nigeria’s name is constantly dragged through the mud because of this. In europe (that’s one of the reasons they dominate world football), players born there can never get away with it. They will be exposed without apology. Only when we have similar mindset can we progress.
Adisboy, okay, “at most, 2 years, please forgive my typo. In that case, if Kanu was “at most” 2 months (not even years) older than 17, he would still have been an age cheat, agreed?
I have already said I totally agree with your position on this matter.
Touching one a point you made in your entry above – yes it does baffle me as well that no investigative journalist has taken it upon himself to investigate, expose and blow a wide open the issue of “age-cheating allegations in Nigerian football”.
As far as I know, these rumours have been around for decades yet, we see it again in this current Under-20 team.
So, I get what you are saying.
What I am saying is: until such a time when 1) it can be proved beyond reasonable doubt that our players have falsified their ages, 2) fifa introduces a revolutionary solution (like MRI testing) to under 20 football ; I will continue to enjoy the football and celebrate the victories.
That is my perogative.
As it stands, all these rubbish are rumours and counter-rumours by Nigerians.
Uzoho : some say he is under 23; some laugh that how can he get married at 21. (rumours and counter-rumours).
Kanu : some said he was under 17; some say he was at least 2 years older ; some said he was at most 2 years older; some say he was many years older. (rumours and counter-rumours).
Taiwo Awoniyi : some say he is young, others point to his “early marriage” as a sign that perhaps he is not as young as reported.
I WANT FACT, FACTS!!!! NOT ROMOURS, SUGGESTIONS, OR OPINIONS. I WANT HARD IRREFUTABLE FACTS.
Until such a time, I will also harbour some doubt; but I will still enjoy the football.
Well done Flying Eagles.
And, one more thing just came to my mind.
Think about it, the allegations of age-cheating has hung over Nigeria since 1985 (or even earlier).
The key question is: If, as Nigerians we believe that – prior to 2013 U-17 world cup – almost all youth Nigerian teams have cheated age-wise, has this harmed our senior team football over the years?
My answer will be, no.
We have qualified for 6 senior world cups and have reached the knockout stages more times than other African countries.
We have reached more semi-finals in the history of the African Cup of Nations than any other African countries and have managed to win the tournament twice since 1985.
My point is that, age cheats or not our senior national team has not suffered as a result of this cloud.
Funny enough, when we allegedly age-cheating in U-17 world cups between 2001 and 2011, we only won it once.
They introduced MRI to stamp out age cheating (and deal with Nigeria) guess what, we won it back-to-back (2013 and 2015)!
MRI or not; age-cheating or not Nigeria is a football nation, period!
Now, I am not naive. These under 21s look old but, such suspicions have not harmed our football in the past; I see no way they can harm our football in the future.
Deo, you say age cheating has not harmed our football? Are you serious? Between 2010 till date we failed to qualify for the nations cup an unprecedented 3 times. This is the period most of boys from the youth teams of 2001 – 2009 should have been prominent. We no longer had our top players signing for clubs in the top leagues. We fell out of the top 10 in Africa. Our current change in fortune coincides with the introduction of MRI . It is so clear that if we don’t check this we are doomed.
Adisboy, I am dead serious! I believe this so strongly that I will rephrase and repeat it:
It is my view that there remains no evidence at this time that allegations of age-cheating over the last 34 years has harmed the success of the Super Eagles of Nigeria.
In that period, the Super Eagles have, at one time, climbed very high in FIFA rankings, qualified for World Cups, reached the knockout stages of the world cup more times than any other African country, qualified for many African cup of nations and have reached the semi-finals of the same tournament more times than any other African country.
Now, you touched on a relatively short period between 2011-2017 when Siasia’s complicity on 2 occasions and the NFF’s poor plannings led to Nigeria not qualifying for the Afcon thrice.
What you failed to highlight is that somewhere between those years – 2011 to 2017 – Nigeria actually won the tournament!
You appear to attribute age-cheating partly as the causes of us not qualifying for 3 Afcon tournaments but I fail to see the correlation.
In between 2011 to 2017, we failed to qualify for the cup of nations yet in the same period we: 1) qualified for and won the Afcon in 2013 , 2) qualified for a world cup, 3) reached the knockout stages of the world cup (2014), 4) qualified for Chan 5) reached the semi-finals of the chan with one of our players named (I think) player of the tournament (Ejike Uzoenyi).
Wasn’t altogether a bad period was it?
I maintain, put the allegations of age-cheating to one side, Nigeria remains a veritable football nation.
Like I have said all along, I do share this “worry” with you and others that fielding players who appear to be older than they claim is something that we should not encourage.
I get that.
However, what we know is one thing, what can be proven is quite another.
I am not an investigative journalist so I will leave them to do their jobs.
As for me, I will enjoy the football and celebrate the victories ; for now at least.
@Adisboy, bro God would bless you, we wonder why Nigeria is not progressing, we can’t continue to support illegality, those men are too old to be playing in any age competitions,this’s pure madness.Afez Aremu has been playing in the local league for six years before he went to Norway. Guys pls we can do better than supporting those barbarians running day to day affairs of that Country.
What about Philip Osondu, the “matured looking” 16 year old who dazzled the world at the u-16 world cup in 1987 in Canada, and ended up with the golden ball, as the MVP of the competition. He then went to Belgium to sign a pro contract, only for the club to say his real age was more like 28. Abegi, na dia belle dem dey find. As long as dia legs can carry dem, is all part of the hustle.
Look at this guy, Matteo Guendouzi, a French under-21 international. He is said to be 19 years old and there is nothing to prove that he is not truly 19.
However, on the face of it, if you ask me to guess his age, I will probably say 22-23 years old due to his build and maturity of his face.
But, they say he is 19.
19 year old France and Arsenal’s Guendouzi:
https://youtu.be/SdsPkfBdzaY
Deo, to me this guy truly looks to be 19. Even if he was 22, that’s just 3 yrs difference. Barring injury, one can confidently expect that this guy has another decade of football left in him, minimum.
BTW, fine player this guy is. Very matured display despite his youth. With the likes of Guendouzi, Pogba, Kante, Rabiot, and Ndombele, just to name a few, the French midfield is spoilt for choice for many years to come. Hopefully, Nigeria will get it right, eventually. Winning age grade competitions is good, but consistently producing quality, young players that will go the distance for the senior team is the overriding objective.
Pompei, as you said Philip Osondu was a case of extreme age cheating. You know he grew up in Aba my home town. He was around 30 years old when he played U17. But on other hand, there are quite a few that i know played with their actual ages like Amuneke, Amokachi, Okocha, Okechukwu Uche, so it wasn’t all bad.
Those are the rumours we talk about….Harry Rednapp,kanu’s gaffer then once claimed kanu should be 49 when he claimed 33….wether we love the statement or not, he had his reason(s).now, a person knew him in Owerri.
I can bet it…even if we finally get solution to This, some people will still come out to condemn. Let’s enjoy our football.
After all….our coach had some players on mind …keanan and Jayden Bennett’s, 19 and 17 respectively, another guy from wesbromwich Albion,Oforboh 18, Okonkwo Arsenal 17 etc. So let’s wait for world cup team.
The first objective was to qualify for the World Cup. That objective has been reached. Now we have reached the semi final, the real football starts and we will see what the squad is made of. Mali and possibly Senegal (they should beat SA) will be the first true tests of the quality the squad has.
Let’s not forget, this team although played in the Wafu competition in December was cobbled together at a time when the NPFL was not a five for seven months.
Whatever happens now (win or lose semi-final and final) the squad will be overhauled for the World Cup proper and the clubs that withheld players will not be able to.
Several of these players will be dropped for pro players playing in Europe. Some will come forward and say “I told you some of these players are overage that’s why they have been dropped.
Fact is, nobody can prove that a single one of them are over age. All we have is allegations based on looks, not a single person has offered proof, just what they think.
It’s only Nigerians that will put down their own national team continuously over the decades. We have got out act together and are making progress.
Yes, we have been sanctioned before in 1989 (30 years ago) when cheating was rife across the globe not just in Africa. Since then South Africa, Cameroon, Brazil, Mexico, Kenya, Senegal, North Korea, Tajikistan, Bangladesh, Ecuador have all been caught. Funny enough most of the countries were sanctioned but in the case of Brazil who won the 2003 youth World Cup with Carlos Alberto Oliveria who was found to be using fake documents to claim that he was the correct age, it was the player that was sanctioned and not the country.
Under 17 Wafu last year, the Republic of Benin were thrown out for fielding 10 players overaged.
The fact is, despite screams, whispers and complaints, we have fielded only players who have passed MRI tests for for under 17 competitions (every camp for under 17 teams are tested in camp) and with fifa introducing mri gets for the next under 20 World Cup, it’ll be a level playing field and it’s only our prepearation that will determine how well we do.
Nigerians will never stop amusing you with permutations. You can only ascertain their ages only if you can provide the evidence that they’re truly older than 20.
Historically, only a selected few made it from the FlyingEagles to the SuperEagles since 1999(Joseph Yobo, Julius Aghahowa and Rabiu Afolabi) 2005(Mikel, Taye Taiwo, Chinedu Obasi) 2007(Ambrose, Echiejile, Ideye, Ezenwa) 2009 ( Ighalo, Aluko, Haruna, Rabiu Ibrahim) 2011(Omeruo, Musa, Kayode, Azeez, Ajagun) 2013(Simon, Ndidi, Kayode, Ajagun, Aminu, Shehu, Agbo) 2015 (Simon, Ndidi, Iheanacho, Success, Musa, Alampasu, Awoniyi and the likes. So it’s not as if the SuperEagles have not benefited from the our U20s
From this set I’ve seen at least 6 players who can go on to have a relatively good career if not stellar. Oremade the goalkeeper, the two central Defenders Igbo Ogbu (He plays for Rosenberg in Norway) Valentine Ozornwanfor( He was called up for trials at Porto) The Two full backs Ikouwen and Zaruma have all showed promise as well as Nazifi Yahaya. Therefore, I don’t have any cause for alarm even if they don’t win the U20 AFCON this year. Some other foreign pros will still join them by the WorldCup proper.
As far as I’m concerned going by their looks I can’t categorically say they’re older than 20 since I have no proof. The only countries where actually age can be verified at birth is the United States and UK. And some other Western European nations.
@Aphillydegreat and that is in line with most countries. No more than three or four make it to the senior team. Yes there’s are “anomalies” where countries produce a “golden generation” but that is very rare simply because individual layers at youth level develop at different rates. One youngster may take longer to mature, or grow in physical size or even understand tactics whilst another may be held back from regular football by having a seasoned professional and club/national favourite playing in their position.
Also worthy of note is that the Flying Eagles “class of 2019” will not only be these 23 players, but will also include those who come in to replace others for the World Cup as well as those dropped after the Wafu cup in December, so we will be looking at probably a pool of 35 players including some who were in the under 17s last year who were unavailable because they signed for clubs or went on trials.
Maybe we may have to choose between having a Julius Aghaowa and Ayo Makinwa who would give us 2-3 years of football and we have to wait another 3 years to get a fitting and capable replacement, or having an Osaze odemwingie, Celestine babayaro, Vincent Enyeama, and Joseph Yobo who would give us 10 – 15 years of quality football and consistency in the national team. What I know with tha average african player is that when you are talented and truly young, you stay long enough in the limelight to get to play in the topmost teams in the world. We are all agreeing that the Senegalese boys are truly ‘young’ even by mere looking at their faces, compared to our own boys, and it is no coincidence that Senegal has remained top of African rankings for a long time now, since the end of the golden era of ivory coast. They currently have one of the largest pool of players playing in the top leagues of Europe, and have managed to maintain an inexplicable level of consistency while churning out capable replacements at will. They have become our albatross in almost every soccer tournament on this continent in the last two years now. Though not all U20 players may eventually graduate into the senior side, but the fact that they still have years of football left in them means they will remain in the spotlight for long enough to be reckoned with, rather than just fizzling off within a space of half a decade or less.
Well said. This to me is an honest, accurate assessment of the situation on ground.
Going by their looks, it can not be said categorically that these guys are under 20 either. Definitely not. One expects some outliers here and there, but when the average age of an under 20 team is significantly higher than 20, then we are only shooting ourselves in the foot, development wise. A 27 year old claiming to be 19 can perhaps grind out another 10 years of football. The wahala is when they should be in their prime age wise, performance is no longer commensurate to declared age. Injuries that should be healing quickly are taking longer to heal because of the real age. The biggest problem in my opinion is the ever present possibility that the genuine under 20s who should be in the squad will never get the chance, not at the right age, anyway. These ones are told to “wait for their time”, and of course their time comes when they themselves are over age. Thus, the vicious cycle perpetuates.
Pompei, when I see people say “you can’t depend on looks”, we all know what a teenage Nigerian looks like. There are exceptions that look older, but would not be the norm. It is not a coincidence that Nazifi Yahaya looks like a teenager in the current team as this boy passed through the verifiable NFF U13 programme, same with Akpan Udo. Go back 2 years to Amuneke’s U20 team, why didn’t people suspect them of age cheating. Go back and look at the videos and see the likes of Osimen, Nwakali, Kingsley Micheal, Orji Okonkwo, Chukwueze etc. That was a real U20 team and we have started reaping the rewards in Osimen & Chukwueze. In the next 2 years I beleive will get the full effect and mind you this team didn’t even qualfy for U20 AFCON. We should stop deceiving ourselves, the NFF can easily verify the ages but that’s Naija for you.
Thanks @ adisboy. That 19 out of 21 players in an U20 team would not look like real 20 year olds is a figure that defies all known laws of statistical distribution. Of course there are always gonna be few anomalies where 2 or 3 would have bigger features than the normal ones, but there cant be any excuse for a whole 80% of the team looking way above the prescribed age grade, with some even showing visible recession of their hairlines. Habaaa…!
@Adisboy “we all know what a Nigerian teenager looks like”. With approximately 10.5 million 15 to 19 year old males in Nigeria, that’s a lot of variation. There are those who’s growth spurts started early and others who matured late. There are those who have suffered and those who were lucky to live a sheltered and life of relative abundance.
Simply put, you can look at one teen and because he has lived a life of poverty or struggle he will look much older than his years relative to another who didn’t have half the struggle, hunger or stress.
The only way the NFF can verify a player who is over 17’s age is by looking at their documents, or if they have passed through the footballing system as you highlighted. There are many who will bring doctored, fake or conflicting documents just so that they can get into the team and its the NFF’s job to filter these out and only select those that meet the criterion.
4 years ago, we had a functioning football league and more decent structures. In cobbling this team together, the league had not been working for 7 or so months and many of these players have never ever played together or in a football club in their lives as the NFF had to scour football academies (Amuneke’s academy inclusive) to look for players that satisfied the legal requirements.
I’m wondering where we will get players from if the footballing activities in the country are halted for 7 months.
Also, the under 20 squad you refer to moved up from the under 17 2015 world cup winning squad. The 2017 under 17s who were MRI tested did not even qualify for the world cup, so might have been deemed not of sufficient quality (apart from one or two)to move up
Adisboy, well said. Even if the boys are not under 20, as long as they are 20-ish, water never pass garri. We wish them well, anyway. I just hope we get to the point where we start churning out world class, genuinely young talents. This is the only way we can realistically hope to challenge for the world cup (the real world cup, not under-whatever) in the near future.
Its stereotype for people moaning about ages of players in Nigeria.It doesn’t matter how young or old the players look there are people who are sceptical and would always have reservations about the true ages of players.Thorough check at the faces of players on the photo above i realise only players assigned to this strip numbers 8 15 16 and the captain look older the rest are relatively young.Having said that,the aforementioned players could still be genuine under 20’s who knows.
Meanwhile,the number eleven failed the MRI test recently was part of Manu’s current under 17 group he’s by name Aliyu Abubakar (aka) Aliyu bravo.He is 16yrs old.Igho Ogbu jersey no 12 was the captain of the under 17 that had a failed mission couple of year back,he passed the MRI test but you can see by his look and size a lot of us would think he is beyond the required age for the competition.
However,looking at the Senegalese and S/African teams we played recently you don’t need a soothsayer to tell you this group are of the right ages set aside for the competition its not debatable but when you start debating and analysing a particular teams age credibility then there’s something not right.
Hopefully we could get a few players from this group to beef up the super eagles in the nearest future.We have discern some very good players from this group who can be very important in the nearest future that’s what really matters.
Against Mali we shall have a better platform to access the team further because in their last victory against the host it was rather a tension soaked match full of nerves where what was important is qualification.
The atmosphere and situation also not forgotten bad unplayable pitch affected the teams rhythm so what we saw rather was a desperate team playing just to qualify so was denied the opportunity to see the team play it’s normal game but against Mali we shall see a different situation and a better football.
God bless Nigeria.
Thank you @greenturf and BigD. If I’m not mistaken I think about 3 or 4 players in this team are from the Amunike academy. The truth is that in Nigeria majority of players from our youth teams are from very poor if not wretched backgrounds who struggled to reach their heights.
Most of them grew up on Garri and Groundnut. Some of them hawk oranges and bread running day and night in traffic to make ends meet. A boy who grew up in those circumstances will surely look older than his peers from a silver spoon background. When I was in high school in Nigeria there were lots of guys my age that looks older and there are some that look younger. For me I’ve been growing beards since I was 16 and during our teenage years we rarely shave.
Mere looking at the picture these boys are truly young. The worst case scenario could be a 2 or 3 years difference in their actual age and we’ve already identified the ones that can go on to have good careers. Our permutations are based on the fact that Nigeria failed to qualify for the last U17 WorldCup meanwhile a handful of these team are from that same U17 set that went through the MRI process. Lobatan.
Goalkeepers: Akpan Udoh (Unattached); Olawale Oremade (Oasis FC); Detan Ogundare (Kogi United)
Defenders: Mike Zaruma (Plateau United); Ikouwem Utin (Enyimba International); Igoh Ogbu (Rosenburg FC, Norway); Solomon Ogberahwe (El-Kanemi Warriors); Valentine Ozornwafor (Enyimba International); Olasunkanmi Aliyu (Emmanuel Amuneke Academy)
Midfielders: Peter Eletu (Prince Kazeem Academy); Quadri Liameed (36 Lions); Aniekeme Okon (Akwa United); Jamil Muhammad (Kano Pillars); Afeez Aremu (IK Stat, Norway)
Forwards: Adamu Alhassan (Kano Pillars); Yahaya Nazifi (Sonderjyske FC, Denmark); Ibrahim Aliyu (Oasis FC); Adeshina Gata (Wikki Tourists); Ibrahim Abubakar (Plateau United); Okoh Victor (Real Sapphire FC); Maxwell Effiom (Enyimba International)
So far, the real academy boys (who probably are the true U20s amongst the team) have had to sit on the bench for NPFL players who are claiming to be 18 & 19 year olds. Isnt this a little unfortunate…?
To solve this issue the NFF needs to set up an age-verification department whose sold aim would be to verify the eligibility of the youth players. The players should asked to bring their primary and secondary school records which can easily be verified. Afterall, Channels TV constantly does this for their Channels Kids Cup and they vet hundreds of pupils each year so why can’t the NFF. Don’t be suprised if the real average real age of the current U20 team is higher than the current Super Eagles squad.
School certs don’t price anything. I have classmates that are 4 years older than me and others that are 3 years younger.
That a person went to school early or late sorry make them eligible for football.
Age verification is a govt function and quite simply should be recorded on a national database.
It should be a legal requirement for a parent to register a child’s birth otherwise the parent be sanctioned.
You born pikin for Kotangora or Njikoka or Madagali local govt area, carry your two legs to get a birth certificate which is verifiable on s database and traceable with your local govt.
Let’s get the local govts found what they are supposed to
Damn this no edit function
Our under 20 goalkeeper Oremade has an imposing height.I love the lad and how he deals with crosses,his ball distributions is great as well.Interestingly Rohr is at Niger scouting the flying eagles hopefully,with his displays so far wont be surprise he makes the tea for Seychelles and Egypt respectively.
Meanwhile this lad could displace Uzoho in the nearest future if he keeps his head high and work harder,Oremade, Alampasu who incidently is the second choice at Farense currently and Uzoho,this three are the future of super eagles.Bin pole and assured in the goal area this three are young and are doing amazing things.
https://owngoalnigeria.com/2018/02/16/exclusive-rosenborg-to-announce-signing-of-2016-nigeria-u17-captain-igho-ogbu-today/
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Norwegian side Rosenborg will later in the day confirm the signing of Nigerian teen prospect Igho Ogbu, Owngoalnigeria.com can exclusively reveal.
Ogbu has been training with the team for some time now, and after reaching the official professional age of 18 in February. His signing will be made official later today.
The defensive midfielder who can also play as a central defender has impressed the technical crew of the team during training sessions with the first team, and he is expected to sign a five year deal.
His signing means the Norwegian giants now have two Nigerians on their book following the signing of Samuel Adegbenro midway through the season last week from fellow Norwegian side Viking .
Standing at an impressive height of almost six feet tall, he represented Gombe United last season but left the club midway into their campaign in the Nigeria Professional Football League, where they were eventually relegated.
A member of the 2016 Nigeria U17 team, he was one of the three captains of the team that failed to qualify for the African Nations Championship. However from that same team he is the 8th player who has moved to an European team from the players assembled by Nigeria U17 coach Manu Garba.
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The part of that report that catches my attention the most is the last paragraph. 8 members of a team that didnt qualify for AFCON U17 moved to europe. Ofcourse Nazifi Yahaya now makes it no 9. That is to show that even the european teams wouldnt waste time to snap up our talented youngsters when we field the right ages. It only goes to give them assurance that their investment will mature in ample time and not fizzle away because of age induced diminishing returns.
So these guys are younger than Chidera Ezeh of FC Porto? lol make them sha win the cup cos me don accept am that way since it is not only 9ja dey cheat for football