Golden Eaglets head coach Manu Garba has released his final 21-man squad for the 2019 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Brazil, reports Completesports.com.
Four players that were part of the squad to the Africa U-17 Cup of Nations in Tanzania were dropped from the squad.
They were; Fawaz Abdullahi, Shedrack Tanko,, Mayowa Abayomi and Ogaga Oduko.
David Ishaya, Adrian Akande, Mubaraq Adeshina, Shuaibu Abdulrazaq, Suleman Shuaibu and Olatomi Olaniyan who were part of the team in Tanzania, had already been dropped before the trip to Brazil.
Captain of the team, Samson Tijani, Wisdom Ubani and Akinkunmi Amoo were part of the players that made the squad.
THE FULL LIST
Goalkeepers: Sunday Stephen, Joseph Oluwabusola, Daniel Jinadu
Defenders: Usman Ibrahim, Clement Ikenna, Charles Etim, Quadri Edun, Oluwatimilehen Adeniyi
Midfielders: Samson Tijani (Captain), Francis Daniel, Akinkunmi Amoo, Peter Agba, Ibraheem Jabaar, Monsuru Opeyemi, Ojederan Hamzat, Sa’id Ibrahim
Strikers: Wisdom Ubani, Olakunle Olusegun, Devine Nwachukwu, Olawale Peter, Abba Bichi
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60 Comments
Three players that were not originally in the team for the Brazil friendly games gatecrashed into the 21 man squad. I smell something fowl.
So the arsenal guy wasn’t good enough to be considered..
Let’s see what coach garba brings to the table this year.
My brother, I smell a lot, I mean a LOT of foul play o….infact I nor go suprise if tolotolo play folo for the matter.
Almost half of the team to Tanzania has been dropped, including stalwarts like Oduko and Tanko….while an holiday maker who happens to be the son of a top security chief in Nigeria was named ahead of players like Arsenal’s Ebiowei and this other kid from Brighton.
Talk about real gate crashing…!
I rest my case till we see them at the WC proper.
Only five defenders in a World? I think two MF be remove and same number be added to
the defense. Cause if any defender sustain injury, it will be worrisome.
I believe some of the midfielders could play defence roles as well.No coach in his right sense would go to a world cup with five defenders.
Defensive I mean
dat is y say,even as president of d country,we need foreign coach witout interference,ng u17 useles 2 watch
Please is Abba Bichi the new sensation? Is he new or incharge of camp intelligence? Can someone clarify this issue for me cos his name sounds presidential
So this Arsenal kid will not be part of Nigeria squard. Is as if Many Garba has change from the real and uncompromising man we knew back then 2007 as an assistant to coach Yemi Tella and 2013.
Except for the keepers all foreign player were all dropped. what is really happening.
Manu I wish you the best.
But I dnt foresee your success this time around. I cnt follow this team passionately like I did 2013.
Manu, pls dnt turn this team to Menu Menu in for other country, we are watching you closely
Oga, were you there with them in camp? Do you know what the coach based his decision on before selecting the final squad? You don’t even wait for them to kick a ball before you started your blame games. And what is even so special about the foreign base? Okocha, Kanu,Adepoju,Oruma,Ugbade,Ohenhen,Siasia,Babayaros,Babangida,Nsofor,Mikel,and lately Chukwueze were all discovered at our local clubs and they all played age grade competition so stop the fuss about foreign base. Wait until u see their performance before you blame.
I tire for those guys with irrelevant comments ooo
God bless you @Ola. You took the words out of my mouth.
Thanks a lot man for the correction. I love your positive view and the way you enlighten my tot. Thanks boss man
And I love your humility in accepting correction. The GRACE in your name TGRACE is not a mistake.
PomPei, you are remarkable sir.
You welcome my brother, God bless you.
Where are the class of 2013?
What is the true story about ABBA BICHI? The country is exploding in gossip, and the NFF needs to clarify issues
In the list was the son of the Director-General of the Department of State Services ( DSS) in Nigeria Yusuf Bichi Magaji. His son Abba Bichi made the list despite his late invitation to the team but according to a team source he made the team entirely on his performance and conduct.
” His level is almost same with the other guys in the team. Forget about his father’s position in the Nigerian government. He earned his spot on merit. Everybody likes him because of his manners. Well cultured in his conduct. He pick balls, water bottles and other training stuff after training without been told. I have never seen the child of a wealthy man who behave this decent’, he told Owngoalnigeria.com.
How can someone be assesed in few days to a tournament without camping with them for months make a worldcup viund team???
Manu garba who for me is one of the best local coaches we have, yet doesn’t look devoid of corruption. This is one of the reason I’m no longer comfortable a Nigerian coaching our senior side.. For years many Nigerians lost hope with the super eagles because truly they are a poor side.. After keshi to olishe we were struggling.. But just check out an old German who arguely not the best coaches in the world but within few yesrs made the team a wonderful..
Corruption was the problem not talent.. What was an oduamadi, haruna Lukman, babatunde, etc doing in our super eagles.. This is also implicated with others areas of our beloved country..
Also pls not trying to be tribalistic… When did the north start playing better football compared to the east and south. The south east and south west if we are sincere with ourselves produce the best players right from ages, how many Nigeria football legend are from the north..
If others civilized nations behave like we do we would never have players like Tammy, iwobi, ajayi etc in our team cos they give you the opportunity regardless of your place of origin and skin colour..
This team would not go far, just mark my word!
…stop this nonsense of south east and south west, you forget that its kaduna and Jos that has produced the most players for Super eagles… mikel… onazi…musa…babayaros…peter ogaba…john zaki…akwuegbu…Nsofor…Uanzekin…Awaziem…Odegbami… were all either Makurdi/jos/kaduna boys in their time… football is played everywhere and when it comes to youth football know that no region plays better than the others… folks around middle belt… and the north generally have been excluded from youth teams because more agents from south east and south west are involved in football busniess.
They were discovered in the north yet the east are more involved in sporting business…
My brother don’t say what you don’t know… I’m not trying a tribal war, but I have lived in many regions in Nigeria, I stay in the same street with Samuel Kalu junior brother, hope you know he went to jos cos there were much opportunities for him in the east..
I have friends who know about Samuel chukweze, if not divine intervention from God, he talent would have died and forgotten, so don’t say what you don’t know.. Those easter and southern boys in the north were the few ones that were privileged to be where they are at that point in time, he they happened to grow in the east, no one would have ever discovered your Mikel and Co.
Just come alone to aba and see talents wasting you would know I’m talking from experience.
Do your analysis well well,, not everyone can be at the right place at the right time..
How many of players born abroad are from the north, don’t they travel too. There are many westerns in the the UK and see how that has helped the boys from the west.. Your saka, lukmon, ajayi, if they had stayed in Lagos or other western state do you think they would have discovered.
Most racists will start by saying that “I am not a racist, but…” and then starts off with his racist ranting. Tribalists are the same way, they start by saying they are not tribalistic and then go on to reveal their true colors. A coach, of whatever tribe, must be judged purely on the basis of the results of his players. And Garba coached one of the most exciting U-17 squads when they won the WC in 2013. He could not repeat that success with the U-21 team. So if he is to be replaced, it must be by someone with better pedigree than him. I am reminded of Kenya where the major teams – that have never won any continental titles are almost purely tribal. Among them, there is a team for Luos, one for Luhyias and another for Kikuyus. This is such a plague for African politics and sports management that readers often cannot hide their tribal allegiances. This is the tragedy of much of our continent.
Tammy is not in our sorry.. Sorry about that.. But imagine if these English never gave him the chance, he talent would have died.. There are many good players dropped from that team and a certain baba achi picked instead.. Those good players might have a better football career path or maybe the next nigeria Jay Jay okocha but their career would just die like that cos they were not given the opportunity that deserve.
Was this not how we lost David alaba when a certain yemi Tella told him to pays dues before playing for Nigeria, the players picked ahead of alaba, where are they today. Where is their chrisatus maculey…
Is it until we have foreign based players before we can perform. Please where did you hear that the late Tella requested from money from alaba. Please be careful of the stories you pass on. You are not a member of the coaching staff to determine who is right for the team. In the case of the Bichi boy, we have no evidence to provide on why he was selected. Have you watched him play before.
Sorry my brother it is a painful truth Alaba’s mother confirmed that information last year that she was the one who broth the son by her self to the team and the coach told her to pay his way into the team but she refuses and took her son away and immeidiatley that year at the age of 17 Austria senior team capes Alaba and ever since 2014 has won Austria player of the year till this year. At this time that we are struggling to convince player of Nigeria decent brought up abroad to switch to their father land this tournament would have been the easiest way to give this foreign born players and feeling of belonging and you don’t want to tell me that player brought up buy Arsenal academy is that poor that he could not make it to the u17 world cup. Must we win the tournament all the time and be claiming 7 time world champion that has not really translated to not even u20 let alone the super eagles. I believe that Nigerian coaches like Amunike, Oliseh, Siaone and others can do a better job
@Ugwudede, why are you wasting your Prescious time to explain to people whose understanding of things is skewed towards corruption. Authentic information confirmed Ebiowe was the most technically gifted player in camp. Even Manu himself attested to that himself in one of the interviews. For fear the boy will impress greatly if given game time during the friendlies, got Manu n co to wickedly refuse to play him in any of the game, as it will then be very very difficult to actualise their plan to drop him. Same strategy they used in chasing Akande away. Very very wicked. These clueless coaches have missed the point. Imagine a country that won 2 consecutive u-17 world cup but struggling to get 4 of those players making waves around the world. Again people asking why foreign born should be invited. My question to such persons is are these kids from foreign land, not nigerians? What kinda of humans would come here to say such silly stuff to lil children who sacrificed alot,get bullied, just for choosing to come back home to play for a country they didn’t really benefit anything from whilst growing up. Sure there are few exceptionally gifted players like Amoo, Ubani in the team, a progressive minded coach would surely have added Ebiomwe in that team. All of the nonsense going on about Manu’s treatment of those foreign kids, especially Malcolm Ebiomwe, has killed every interest for the world cup, whether they win it or not.
Don’t seems to know whose understanding is corrupted. I only asked a question. Am i not free to ask questions again. And mind you i don’t believe all i read until proof is tendered.Can you furnish us the authentic information that ebowei was the only technically sound player in the team. Are you now a coach to know that foreign based players in academy are better than ours. If thats the case why haven’t they won the tournament for there respective countries
They are winning better than us if you understand what u-17 is all about. A greater percentage of their U-17s end up becoming fantastic talents for their Senior team, while apart from 2 or 3 of ours, after winning U-17, they gradually denerate into mediocre players because they could have only won, not because they had better techniques but for physical endurance, which African youth have over others. But when those others now become over 20years, their physical condition n endurance now become well developed to match the African youths, and combined with their better football techniques,we then start to see our players are a no match to those same players who couldn’t win the U-17 while we did. WE SHOULD UNDERSTAND U-17 IS NOT ABOUT WINNING THE CUP. 90% of football fans over the world don’t even watch it, reason most stadia used for hosting are always almost empty.
Agreed after the tournament a lot of this kids fade away. But whose fault is that. The NFF is not ready to help with there growth, so also are the clubs. And with the nature of things in nigeria, a lot of them a desperate to run away to Europe or any country that is ready to pay for there services
This story about Abba B’ichi if confirmed,i shall lose the respect i have for the coaching crew of the eaglets which i hold in high esteem.
I am aware how difficult things are in Nigeria and the desperation to keep one’s job will obviously leave you at the mercies of your employers who take advantage of this unfair privileges to do as they pleases.
However,it’s a very awkward and difficult situation to find oneself.Sometimes from the fans perspective it’s easy to blame and despise this vulnerable employees but the reality of the situation and the country’s economic factors,huge responsibilities most times from families, makes resignation difficult.
Having said that,society will never accept that as an excuse.The right things have to be done.Transparency should be cultural,people must have equality irrespective of social stratification.
I hope this is not a situation where we are lacking qualities on the bench,i hope not.
Meanwhile,on the issue of dropping foreign born trialists,we should be aware that Nigeria boasts of some of the best raw youth talents in the world.At under 17 category we have super talents,so coming from abroad,you must have better qualities otherwise you will miss out on the party.
26th October,is around the corner and we can only judge Abba B’ichi and rest of the team after then.
Hopefully,we are proved wrong.All the best golden eaglets of Nigeria!
Why would foreign players play for the Golden eaglets?, when we have talents all over Nigeria; and when did we start using foreign players at u-17?. We have won several u-17 world cups without the so called foreigners. Let us see them play first before we start talking and blaming, we were not at the camp to see how these players performed. I remember what coach manu Garba said last week, that he was not impressed with the performance of some players in the camp, and he is going to add some new players to the team, even those that was left behind may also make the team.
I am among those that believe this team will not Fumble like the Sambisa Boys(Aigbogun U-20) and might even go all the way to claim the trophy. Look guys, No be matter of say You dey play for Arsenal or Abroad! Let’s stop thinking the Coach is taking bribe cuz his team are largely Home based. Wetin dey for Arsenal U-17 team?? Which talent dey dere wey no dey for Naija?? Guys, this players are OK. The U-17 team that performed at AFCON U-17 didn’t perform well both defensively and in Attack by wasting and conceding lots of goals. And the funny thing those accusing the Coach of bribe now were among those that complained that What kind of team did Coach Garba took to the Nations cup?? Now he hearkened to them and dropped largely the squad he took to AFCON and replace them with capable legs! They are complaining!
You’re wandering which time did he discover this new guys?? Don’t forget Coach Garba only took a Month break and they started Camping again in Abuja before moving abroad till now. Is that not enough time for an experience Coach like him to discover talents?? Abegi..My people, the best you can wish this team is nothing but Good luck and support them not all this Bribe or no bribe matter..smh
Good Day Nigerians
#SoarGoldenEaglets
#Your No.1 fan
True talk Chairmanfemi!!
We are watching and will judge after the tournament
How can a player who recently join the team be on the same level and page with players who have been training for more than a year.. They started with qualify then regional championship moving to proper afcon for that level and a player from no where comes in late and they tell us he is on the same level with others..
They can deceive other Nigerians but not me, he picks bottle water and pure water after training so that’s the reason he was selected, they know Nigerians who complain so they gave their opinion even when no-one has asked them, they are already giving us reasons why he was picked.
I wonder when big men children starts playing football
So are you saying rich kids are not entitled to play soccer again. The ones that have been there are year couldn’t win the tournament. So if reinforcement is brought in. so whats the crime. Even the president’s son can be invited to the team
Guy you all have said it all but I want to look at it from a different perspective. 1st I don’t accept pay to play but if you guys can recall Manu has been looking for a striker as ubani and olusegun weren’t really scoring at d afcon. I also read dat ubani had lost a little form so dat could have made Manu to add another striker as I think d only other striker is Divine Nwachukwu (not sure I got his last name right). Also note that the boy could have really played well to gatecrash the team. The boy from arsenal I blif is a midfielder and that team is packed with capable midfielders that even Fawaz was dropped and olaniyan, so guys let’s wait and see. You all know in tournaments like these a coach already knows dia starting 11 and at most 15 players will partake in d tournament if u understand my meeting not all 21 players will play. most won’t smell a sec so guys let’s see what Manu has to offer. He hasn’t disappointed in my view.
At times,I wounder why we Nigerians evaluate people without facts and figures. Certainly, I’m disappointed with some comments I read here. The coaching crew has been with these boys for a longer time, playing friendly matches and engaging in rigorous training and as such, should have a better knowledge of who to make the list or not than someone from the BEAR PARLOUR or beclouded with ethic sentiment and wide emotions. Note: The foreign guys may not be good enough because they were probably competing for those positions with older guys from home. We need good result, that’s all.
The foreign guys are not GOOD enough because they are competing with older guys.. Is the competition meant for the older guys in the first place.. Why can’t be see the truth and admit to it.. But when this foreign guys later dump Nigeria in the future you start by pouring insults on them and their family.. Tammy is this, Tammy is that.. You have them now begging to represent Nigeria and someone is talking of going with the older guys that after 2 to 3 years who evaporate from the football limelight.
This squad is encapsulated with irregularities and time would tell
Abba is the son of the current DSS, imposition or pay and play time will tell. I don’t care if people calls me a tribalist, but history is on my side, is always wrong to entrust Fulanis Muslims with position of power or authority
…bro, I personally was praying for Ebiowei to make the list… However it seems regarding him there may be more than we know… I believe if even Manu Garba will favour any parley or superior by taking his ward… such a kid must have had what it takes to compete at that level… Let’s wait to see how the Bichi boy strut his stuff… But I know for sure that at the level of u-17, foreign borne may be as equally good as our boys but truth be told… Local lads have made us five times champion. Let’s kill tralibal sentiments as lads in the North as a good in football as lads anywhere… again someone mentioned entrusting Fulani in position of authority is always risky… guys let’s wait to see the team… But truth be told… Manu Garba is neither Fulani or Hausa… He is another indigenous Gombe State tribe…
THIS MADE ME SHED TEARS!
“I grew up watching Dida, he is a legend in Brazil and AC Milan and I felt great. I talked to Ederson and he is also one of my favourite goalkeepers. It’s crazy being on the same pitch with a goalkeeper you watch his videos on YouTube.”
– Maduka Okoye Nigerian goalkeeper
@Ololo, I share your thought.However can we look at it from another point of view that African and South America present the best talent in the world.
We should not look at it from the stand point of age alone but that of talent.Thank God
For the introduction of MIR which to a large extent will detect age cheats.Now the fact that our guys look old doesn’t mean that is what it is.Brother you know the stress we go through to make ends meet in Nigeria that wahala alone will make u age,but trust me don’t be deceived face is not a determinant of age.Those guys from Europe eat well and are well pampered on like our guys who will go and drink garri after training without proper care.At the end bro we will be doing this guys a disservice if you judge them in comparison to their foreign counterpart facially.
Again,you will not blame or judge the Coaches of being corrupt if they picked the local guys ahead of the foreign guys for the obvious reason that I stated earlier.The local guys are far more talented than the foreign guys.This is evident in the no of talent we have produced over time from this age group tournament-the Kanus of this world,Oruma,Mikel,Omeruo and in recent times Osimhen, Eze etc.You know I can mention a long list of them.Conversely, same cannot be said of Players of Nigeria descent from England cos difference in mode of training.Our boys play from the street and are hardened over time same cannot be said of foreign players.how many English players from the age grade tournament turn out as great as our players.
The coaches spend time with this players and know what they want so rather than look at it from the stand point of corruption I rather will look at it from choosing on merit as the coach also want to make a name for himself.
Hello@ Asoko, are you for real?.Let me make you understand this; 99% of every top European players/ English players started at not just u-17 but right down to U-7. They start going to proper tournament from age 6. Reading through reports like yours above only leaves one with the conclusion that most Nigerians have very myopic understanding of things.
Good manners are fine but is that the criterion for selection to a soccer team for a world tournament? I hope this Bichi boy does not become costly excess luggage for the Golden Eaglets.
our Nigeria boys are talented no doubt, but you can’t tell me not even an outfield player born outside could make the team..
It’s obvious many of us hare didn’t follow up this team from the start.
An example was akande during the afcon, he’s highly rated in Chelsea yet wasnt even a sec game time, to show himself.. Do you know that the arsenal guy went to Brazil and was not given a sec of game time in their 2 friendly matches after sou Paulo and Korea.. Two solids friendly games.. Let ask ourselves what’s the purpose of friendly games other than to try the new guys if they would impress or not, yet he played only the local guys.. And this foreign boy who spent so much of his own money to join the team wasn’t given a min of football in a friendly game to show himself.
Then all of a sudden one rich kid who didn’t even travel to Brazil made the squad and yet no one sees anything..
How many of us here know that that rich kid is the youngest player in that squad only 15 years of old, very small boy so tell me how did he do better than the rest, how did he do better than the arsenal wonder kid, that say because he picks pure water after training.. Do you also know the formal minster of sport had a candidate that was suppose to make the team John dalung or so that’s his name but he was dropped because his uncle lost his position as minister of sport, so he no get mouth again,, plz when did our Nigeria team become a place for politicians to drop their children for stop..
Mark my word we would not see the bucji guy play any match cos he is there on escortion to have fun when better players were dropped for him…
Lets pray our main players don’t get injured in the tournament cos that’s when we would the bench Na big men children full am
See Iwobi, what a miss. Anyway I’m not surprised
See goal from Iwobi replacement what a goal.
Guys not doubting the patriotism of these 9ja boys born oversea and in all honesty dia parents and d players themselves should be applauded for wanting to play for dia fatherland and they have every right to do so. But I doubt if they can make d English or German or French teams even at dis level they won’t grab it with both hands. Blif me if the Akande of Chelsea and Ebionwe of arsenal were that great they would be in the English u17 period sentiments aside. I do blif these set of u17 from 9ja are real u17s as they look very young which is good for our football. The truth like someone mentioned is that our boys born in 9ja struggle for even basic things and thus fight for every opportunity as they don’t have much alternatives compared to d boys born overseas who weda they make it or not they have lots to fall back on in terms of career path. I don’t think soccer wise the kids from England are better than d kids born in 9ja but there is no way for me to judge and I would rather give the coaching crew d benefit of doubt. Everyone is innocent until proven guilty. The ABBA Bichi might not even smell a game. To say Manu doesn’t like foreign kids is not appropriate as 3 of d goalies are from d UK. Manu knows what he wants and has beefed up d team accordingly. Guys relax and enjoy d brand of soccer that we wish sometimes wiah our SE can show. I blif in dis team and won’t be surprised if we go all d away as long as some country helps us take care of Senegal lol as I think they are our Achilles heel. This team will come good, am very optimistic.
@ proudly 9ja, if I may ask, did Dele Alli play for England U-17. Did Aribo play? What saddens me is people keep pointing fingers at our leaders as corrupt, when they in their SOHO can’t do anything without being corrupt.
My bro I agree with you but the reality is dat Dele Alli may not have been deemed God enough for England at d u17 level and same for Aribo. My bro, it’s not very fair when u mention dat many of our boys don’t graduate from u17 to SE, many factors can be attributed to the reason why they don’t make it. Also if you do d statistics of players who played u17 and eventually go on and have a fruitful senior national team career you will see that ours is not an exception. But I do understand where u r coming from. Let’s support dis team and watch what happens. Just one more thing as regards to Akande, if he was that highly rated at Chelsea I doubt he would be going for trial at west ham as Chelsea would wanna keep such a talent. Sometimes people hype players for dia own personal gain, am not saying that’s what happened in dis case just putting it out there. I do think d NFF has tried in getting these boys born oversea to play for 9ja and the experience they have gotten trying out with 9ja u17 will help dem get better but also could prevent dem from playing for 9ja I d future if they were treated unfairly or weren’t given d opportunity to prove themselves. I think Manu is a fair coach from what I have seen and I don’t think a coach will see a fantastic player he knows he needs and drop dat player for someone not deemed good enough, I may be naive but I don’t see Manu as dat kind of coach. Just my 2 cents
I like the way you put your point across @proudly 9ja. If you know me too well, I m an even more proudly nijja. I definitely do agree you regarding your point that many reasons outside football could contribute to our u-17 not going on to fulfill their potential later on. But let’s be honest, why would a coach not give game time to those English born players, even in friendlies/an inconsequential third place match, despite all the trusted players failing to perform. @proudly9ja, if that doesn’t tell you that, that is part of plan to hide those talent from the public then I wonder what else will ever convince you. Also again about Akande, my brother @, Proudly 9ja, that boy is a bomb. Chelsea really don’t wanna let him go n again academy players at Chelsea take very long time to break into main stream team reason he is going somewhere else where he can easily play in the main stream after a short while. Please @ proudly n9ja don’t let anyone decieved you, the selection has not been credible. Manu might be decent person but he seem to have lost control.
iwobi need deliverance or maybe cut his hair to revive his career. iwobi that was known with incredible dribbling skill and pace at arsenal, now zero dribble and zero pace added to his weak shootin and none-tackling abilities.
Iwobi fantastic player no doubt but can’t score goals. He needs to improve this part of his game to be considered one of d best attacking midfielders in world as he really has d potential to be amongst d best if he adds goalscoring to his repertoire as he gets in goalscoring positions. His shooting is weak to be honest that won’t trouble most goalies. He just needs to stop thinking and put his laces through d ball ie fire better shot wen go burn keeper hands. just tot I add my 2 cents.
Iwobi is regressing bros, He is losing the touches we used to see of him. Same thing at the friendly, he was all over the place
Imama and his Sambisa boys have just been thrown out of CHAN. Nigeria 3 v 4Togo case closed.
@Glory,I want to believe that it is for want of words or lack of it that make u conclude that mine is myopic as really there was nothing contrary said by you.point should be firstly understood that in terms of talent it is hard to compare these foreign lads to their Niga counterpart,and some of the factors that has enhanced the skill of an average African or even South Amerian player is the rugedity they were exposed to at an early stage.Ronaldiho,Neyma,Jayjay,Kanu of this world kicked the ball from the street.One cannot but appreciate the fact that that exposed them to the toughness and finesse of the game.You see the early tournament the kids from Europe are exposed to help their tactical awareness more than their technical aspect of the game which is the area of strength of our home boys.Besides in recent times ours boys too are beginning to get exposed to early tournaments too.Am sure u know that aside from the good jobs done by some clubs and academy sides,NFF also organise age grade tournament from age 12.Some of the boys from this team are a result of such tournaments.Infact Iheanacho was a product of under 12,15 then 17 where he was outstanding so do a few from this team.
Again the question I put forth as a poser is which of these English player has shone more brightly than our illustrious sons over the years?
Finally,pls we should not sound like every memeber of the current under17 team is produced by one Government official and another.The fact is many of this guys will not even kick a ball throughout this tournament as are only needed as backups as in the case in every team.I will rather wish we wait and see this team before we condemn them.I knew from on set that the Arsenal guy will find it difficult as the midfield is already complete.Rememeber,this guy was laid off by Arsenal Academy cos of disciplinary issues.Plss everyone wanyo,wanyo.Lets pray for this guys to succeed as their success is our pride.
@Asoko Emmanuel@ Apologies if my use of that word myopic sounded offensive. Never my intention. I only used it to express how majority tend not to understand FiFa motives behind organising age grade competitions. Fifa Age grade competitions are founded on prioritizing skill development to winning the Cup which should be secondary. But any country putting winning first will definitely tend to cheat which in the long run ends up defeating the main purpose of such competitions,reason a five time champion is yet to even qualify for the quarter final of the senior world cup talkless of winning. You keep mentioning Kanu NWANKWO, Oruma, etc. But you forget we are talking about a five time u-17 champion. 5 X 21= 105 champions, players wise. Five time u-17 champion,yet to win even the u-20 world cup Does that not tell you something? @Asoko pls let us always tell the truth n help Nigeria come out of its darkness. Now for your information, the disciplinary issue Ebiomwe has at Arsenal was that, he chose to honour the Nigeria call despite Arsenal issuing a warning that no youth team player should go for those Nigeria U-17 trials. Also be honest and help me and others understand why Manu refused to give the bloke some minutes during those friendlies. At least if he wasn’t good enough, everyone could have seen him, as not good enough. You know Manu n his crew can keep fooling themselves but never me.