Listen to the article
Super Eagles’ head coach José Santos Peseiro was on hand as Nigeria’s U17 boys, Golden Eaglets hammered Ikon Allah Academy 9-0 and Propel Sporting Academy 6-0 in two friendly sessions played within hours at the NFF/FIFA Goal Project, Abuja on Wednesday.
“I must say I have been impressed by a number of players in this team. They are headed for great things if they keep level heads and remain disciplined,” Peseiro said as he welcomed NFF General Secretary, Dr. Mohammed Sanusi towards the tail end of the second encounter.
Read Also: Balogun Bags Hat-trick In Reims’ Comeback Win, Overtakes Mbappe As Ligue 1 Top Scorer
The Golden Eaglets were clinical in front of goal in both matches, after the team demolished Ikon Allah Academy 9-0 before thumping Propel Sporting 6-0 shortly after.
The five-time world champions were very assertive from the blast of the whistle against Ikon Allah as they controlled the game scoring four goals to go into the break. On resumption, the woes of Ikon Allah were further compounded when the Eaglets added five more goals.
9 Comments
Would love to see a friendly btw the U20 and U17. E go make sense let’s see how far Ladan Bosso team can go at the afcon after sacking foreign born players, deeming them unfit for African Football. Note: these are the kind of statements that makes these guys turn their back at the nation when they later make it. Mbappe was once rejected by Cameroon today how market??? If you don’t want a player mind the kind of statements you make up for excuses when we know these foreign borns can’t rub your hands of corruption.
God bless to you @ Chima. Unguarded statements that may not intend to hurt but eventually does. Maybe most of our local sportsmen should be avoiding interviews.
Truth is, we keep doing the same thing over n over again. Atleast keep three of those foreign born if only to send positive message to others and for future purpose.
These age grade is for discovering future talents for the main stream SE n no one takes winning the cup really seriously. Anyway let’s continue to watch.
As for a match between flying eagles and golden eaglets, one BIG THUMBS UP for that.
My broda Glory as much as i agree with what u and chima are saying, it will be very unfair to let ho a local player who is better than the foreig born player just so he can be capped in the future. How are we sure the player will even be better in the future. Moreover, their clubs (xrystal palace and d boy from arsenal) gave nigeria 3 days to make a decision on them, how can a coach assess a player for 3 days and select that player whereas others that have beem in d team for months are comparable or even better. We all talk of meritocracy which should be d watch word, so if a local player is better he should be selected and vice versa. Bosso said clearly that his policy is elimination by substitution or is it the other way round, he stated clearly that any player coming in has to be better than d ones who are there which is only fair. I know some people will argue that we’ve missed out on some talents in d past ny not capping dem early who end up doing way better than our local boys selected or that some local players are no longer relevant after the tournament and dont graduate to the SE, which are all fair arguments. But i will say, if we check d history of u17, u20 abd u23 over the world, nigeria is not the exveption when it comes to players in youth systems that a majority of players dont graduate to the national teams after participating in youth tournaments. Loss of firm, injuries, better players are some reasons these kids dont make dat progression to d national teams, i would even go as far as saying less than 20% of players who played youth football make it to d national teams of all countries. For me t personally here was nothing that Bosso said that was out of place, it is a fact that player in africa requires physicality. Bosso even said if nigeria should qualify for the worldcup, he intends to recall them especially the boy from crystal palace whom he said has d physicality but due to time constraint had to let him go back to his club. Age cheat is a different topic entirely hence why i didnt bring dat up as i know that will be another angle some people will argue as one reason we should use these foreign born players as we are sure of dia ages, another fair argument. Just my tots
@ Proudly, while honestly agree with you concerning meritocracy, that whole idea in my opinion, that meritocracy should be channelled towards what n how are selection can widen our pool of players to be available for the main stream SE.
Age grade, is where we are supposed to be having quotas for foreign born and home grown, as it’s only a developmental stage. But rather we always choose to do that with main stream. Reserving 3 slots for those foreign born, I can assure you,will never weaken a team that has 18 home grown unless the coach doesn’t know what he is doing. The benefits of having such quotas for foreign born cannot be over-emphasized. It will atleast give a sense of belonging to every Nigerian Child, whether home or abroad. It will make it easy to convince them to play for Nigeria. It will most importantly increase the pool of talents to select from for the main stream.
Age grade competition, yes is good to win but must be pursued from the angle of players development/ availability when needed for the main WORLD CUP.
WE HAVE BEEN WINNING AGE GRADE FOR MANY YEARS NOW TO THE POINT LATE PELE PREDICTED NIGERIA WAS VERY CLOSE TO WINNING THE WORLD CUP, BUT HE MAY HAVE TAKEN HIS VISION TOO FAR THAN HIS LONG LIFE COULD ACCOMODATE. All simply because we as a country always fail to set our priorities right; forever choosing to eat the eggs of the one big hen while forgetting the hen will someday die and there will be no more eggs or Hen.
EXPANDING THE POOL OF PLAYERS AVAILABLE TO OUR SE WILL ALWAYS MAKE MORE SENSE THAN THIS CRAZE OF WINNING AGE GRADE TOURNAMENTS, WHERE AGE CHEATING COMES BACK TO HUNT US.
Glory well said, while i do agree with majority of what you wrote, the issue of us always wanting to win is our biggest problem. I remember all d insults Bosso received when d flying eagles didn’t make the u20 worldcup last time out even though that team played very good foitball in my view. There is no way a player coming from a wintery condition of the UK come to the sweatering heat of nigeria and not struggle to meet up to the standard of any half decent coach. We complain when SE arrive even 5 days to a game let alone 3 days for someobe who hasn’t been to nigeria b4. Also, assuming bcos u play for crystal palace, arsebal, man city etc, it should be automatic that u are handed a place on d team, haba dat one no follow na, so wetin u want d players wen don dey battle each other out wen also help d team qualify who are also equally as good as the foreign players, reason nam nau. Am not a coach but i see no reason why a coach (Bosso included) will see a quality player that can add value to his team and send dat player away if that said player is superior to what is available. However, i do agree with creating a pool of players but not at tge detriment of well deserving players. We are angered when nff do quota system in nigeria but we are ok with quota system for foreign born players. I think we should have a level playing field for all where everybody has to come and fight for the right to a place on d team. Moreover, none of us were at the abuja training facility to know how they (foreign born players) fared during the trials, i even heard one was vomiting during or after training (not sure how accurate that is). I personally will give d coach d benefit of the doubt since i was not there, also i doubt if most of us here have even seen those boys play to assess how good they are but we have seen d likes of Daga, adegbite, nwosu etc. The team has also been doing well, so i will keep my faith with the coach. I personally don’t like Bosso but he hasn’t disappointed so far. Thanks for being civil in dis discourse as i do agree will majority of what u outlined. One luv bro
Sometimes if you put yourself in these players shoes you’ll understand where I’m coming from. A player that you don’t pay or refund flight ticket from England will come to camp after your scouts claims they have done background check and believe you will make the team. Only for you to come and the coach will tell you that you can not play African football. How many African players have the World Best that you’ll make such funny comments when we know there’s more to those comments. I don’t trust Bosso but I wish him well sincerely speaking. Even though on another interview he retraced his statement that he likes the players and will give them another chance before WC.
@Glory true talk let them play a friendly match btw themselves if something no go happen, I’m tired of hearing all this academy koko and sonic names and using them to judge teams not until main tournaments you’ll be seeing another thing. Ugbade team will fall their hands honestly speaking but fear no go let Bosso try this u17 team.
Chima my broda, i do agree that it would be very benefial for both u17 and u20 to play each other, it will definitely expose both teams and d coaches can take corrective actions. If my memory serves me right Manu Garba did dat with one of his team. I think even have d u20 battle our u23s (if we have one) as well as the homebased eagles. These test games will expose flaws in the teams dat the coaches can correct b4 any tournament but dat would mean having a functioning u23 and homebase SE team not the fire brigade approach of gastily assembling a team 2 weeks b4 a qualifier or tournament.
The part i don’t agree with in one of ur posts is where u mentioned that a scout might have giaranteed a player that he would make d team and then he doesnt, sonething along those lines, any scout guaranteeing a player a spot on a team without dat player ever kicking a ball is a criminal, can u get a job without interviewing for dat position if no be long leg u wan use get d job? I do agree tho that players invited by the NFF should be reimbursed if they don’t make d cut. Those dat came without invitation and didn’t make d squad can’t and shouldnt be reimbursed.
I’m very sure additional foreign based players will be added to the team such as that kid signed by inter and anither dat AC milan also signed, not to 4get players like amoo, olusegun, hamza, said from manu’s u17 that list to netherlands etc. Lets just qualify 1st. One luv broda
These test games will reveal weaknesses in the teams that the coaches can fix before any tournament. However, in order to do so, you need to have a functional u23 and homebase SE team. You can’t take the fire brigade approach and hastily put together a team two weeks before a qualifier or tournament.