Simon Cletus, a Senior Secondary School (SSS) 1 student, student will captain the Golden Eaglets at this year’s WAFU B U-17 qualifying tournament in Ghana.
Francis Achi, the Golden Eaglets media officer disclosed this on his X handle.
According to Achi Cletus, who plays for Mavlon FC, is a student of Palm Ville College, Lagos.
Simon Cletus, first from the right, with his school mates
Cletus and his Golden Eaglets teammates will hope to defend the WAFU B U-17 title which their predecessors won in Ghana in 2022.
The Eaglets will take on Burkina Faso, Togo and Niger Republic at this year’s edition.
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The Manu Garba-led side will kick off their campaign at the tournament against Burkina Faso on Thursday.
Hosts, Ghana will take on Côte d’Ivoire in the opening game scheduled for today (Wednesday).
The WAFU B U-17 tournament which is the qualifiers for the U-17 AFCON, will end on 28 May.
7 Comments
The More we play real U17 players the harder it is for us to win or dominate at the u17 level and the best we get from the team provided they do well..
The days of winning gold at the u17 world cup but not being able to get into the super eagles team are over.. thanks to MRI.
Yes we are finding it hard to subdue other African teams like we do before.. but we benefit More when we play players at the right age at this stage.
Didn’t the same Cletus play in the Ugbade led last U-17 team ?
Na wa o oga ololo, how are you so sure other teams were not cheating before the introduction of MRI, where are your proof that other countries didn’t cheat. Must every negativity be attached to Nigeria. Last i check Nigeria won the tournament twice when the MRI was introduced. What a shameful disgusting write. Do you know how some experts have rejected FIFA’s study on this matter.
But nigeria did win w tournaments when MRI was introduced
The twice Nigeria won the u17 world cup with the MRI scan , how many of the u17 players made it to the super eagles and the other times we won without it , how many players made it to the super eagles..
The likes of christantus and akinsola where are they today? Were they not in the same tournament with a certain Toni Kross, who is still actively playing football..
We know the truth but we don’t want to admit to it..
Nff insisting that only players on grade 4 with the mri Scan are eligible is a welcome development..
Kudos to the boys! They look very young..
Cletus was in the last u17 team but he didn’t get to play much.. he is the captain now.. let’s see what he can bring to the team
Yes we did won it after MRI was introduced ( I never said we did not!) But it is now becoming harder for our u17 to dominate other African teamz like they did before..
After the MRI.. u17 teams that did well have a large bulk of their players playing for the super eagles and top European teams..
If this team do well . expect them in tbe super eagles any time soon.. unlike before where they win gold and vanish into thin Air
@ Olol0, while you point out the fact that Nigeria has used supposedly overaged players in the past, it will be advisable and more instructive to also point out under 17 eaglets that have gone on to play for the super eagles and not only played well for the senior team but also made their mark at the very top levels, playing at that level for nothing less than 10 years.
Perhaps it will be instructive for you to mention players like:
Kanu Nwankwo eaglet 1993, African footballer of the year, Arsenal and Inter Milan
Victor Ikpeba eaglet 1989, African footballer of the year, Monaco
Wilson Oruma eaglet 1993 Olympic Gold 1996, Lens
Mikel Obi eaglet 2003 Olympic silver, bronze, nations cup, Chelsea
Victor Osimhen eaglet 2015 African footballer of the year, Napoli
So, while you can hammer Nigeria on players that have played at Under 17 but didn’t progress to play at the senior level or fizzled out even before under 20, you might want to mention that Nigeria has produced more players that have done excellently at the senior level but for club and country. This will make for a more balanced argument rather than your one sided argument of Nigeria constantly using overaged players at youth levels.
I believe it will also interest you to know that other nations, not just African nations but countries from other continents can also not be absolved of not using overaged players.