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Tag: Golden Eaglets

  • Golden Eaglets record second win  against Mailantarki 

    Golden Eaglets record second win  against Mailantarki 

    The Golden Eaglets got the better of  Nigeria National League side ,Mailantarki Care FC  2-0 in Abuja in their fourth friendly match ahead of next month’s U17 WAFU Cup (U17 AFCON qualifiers) in Ghana. 

    Manu Garba who was recently  named the head coach of the cadet side started the camping with 51 players who have gradually been reduced to  manageable size for the next phase of the camping. 

    Read Also: Golden Eaglets avoid hosts Ghana in U17 AFCON qualifiers

    The Golden Eaglets have now played four friendly games, won two and drew two. The team has scored eight goals and conceded four in the process as they continue the build up to the WAFU B U-17 tournament in Ghana.

    Nigeria won the WAFU B tourney also held on Ghana two years ago but failed to qualify for the FIFA U17 World Cup after the Golden Eaglets lost to Burkina Faso in the quarter final of the Under 17 AFCON.

  • Revealed : How ‘magical’ Michael nearly missed  Golden Eaglets

    Revealed : How ‘magical’ Michael nearly missed  Golden Eaglets

    Emmanuel Michael was one of the star performers for the Golden Eaglets at the last WAFU-UFOA Zone B Africa U-17 Cup of Nations Qualifiers after he scored three goals  from set pieces but his dream of participating in the competition was nearly cut short but for a divine intervention.

    President  of Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Ibrahim Gusau  revealed  during the week  in Lagos that if  not for concerted efforts, the  talented youngster would  have been  lost  on a flimsy  excuse   as he was reportedly  turned back for coming late for screening.

    Gusau  mince no words  that  the seemingly  laborious  open screening of budding talents  for the national Under-17  is obsolete  and  would henceforth be jettisoned  by the NFF.

    “A boy was almost denied a chance to represent his nation because the coaches (with the national U-17 team) said he came late,” Gusau  said.

    “The boy( Emmanuel Michael)  is in the academy owned by one of the Super Eagles players. The Super Eagles player (Moses Simon) had met me during the two games we played in the United States some months earlier. He said he has a player that could help the Golden Eaglets if given opportunities.

    “He said the boy got the camp but he was dropped because he came late. I told him who to call and the head coach, Nduka Ugbade was spoken to.

    “ The boy came back and he eventually made the team. It is the same boy that scored free kicks in Ghana and was adjudged the Man of the Match in three games. I tried to follow it up.”

    Interestingly, Michael   played  brilliantly at the WAFU-UFOA Zone B Africa U-17 Cup of Nations Qualifiers in Ghana  where   he won three Man-of-the-man (MOTM) awards for his brilliant displays, especially converting set pieces.

    He also put up a commendable outing at the U-17 AFCON in Algeria even though the Eaglets crashed out in the quarter final to Burkina Faso as he enjoyed international recognition.

    Interestingly, Imade  who plays for Simoiben FC Academy in Kaduna, was  recently listed among 60 best young  football talents  of 2023 as listed by the Guardian of London.

    Meanwhile, Gusau has affirmed that his leadership would ensure that  open screening of  players featuring for the Under 17 team is stopped henceforth.

    He added that the NFF would institute competitions for Under 15s and 17s from where coaches would be invited to pick the available best players and that from this pool, players that would be given invitation to the Under 17 camp would be picked.

    Gusau lamented the inability of the Golden Eaglets to qualify for the last Under 17 World Cup despite the nation being a record  five-time winner of the competition following  the successful wins of  1985, 1993, 2007, 2013 and 2015.

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    “We are not going to accept bogus and uncontrolled invitation to the Under 17. We are not going to accept an open screening where we would have over 1000 or more kids coming for screening. We are not going to do that,” Gusau noted. “Players that will invited to camp for the Golden Eaglets must be players who have emerged from the various competitions we have organised.

    “There is no way better players will have opportunities in open screening. But when we have these kind of tournaments and the scouting team are able to see them. From there 60 to 70 players can be invited. I am highly interested in this.

    “We are going to activate the junior League. We have the Under 15 and now Under 17 is in the pipeline. We are coming up with guidelines for academies to be accepted. We intend to make it public after the AFCON. Once the guidelines is out every academies must comply with the required standards.”

    Gusau, the erstwhile  Chairman of Chairmen on the NFF board,  noted that very soon the NFF reforms done on academies in the country would take effect and that only academies that meet up with the requirements that would be allowed to function.

    “No player will leave Nigeria in the name of an academy except if the academy meets the requirements to be put in place by the NFF ,” Gusau  sounded off.

  • 2013 FIFA U-17 WC: Golden Eaglets  cry over unfulfilled house gifts

    2013 FIFA U-17 WC: Golden Eaglets  cry over unfulfilled house gifts

    • Manu, Muhammed  seek Otu’s,Enoh”s  intervention

    Veteran youth coach Manu Garba MFR/OON is seeking the intervention of Cross River State Governor Bassey Otu as well as the Minister of Sports Development, Senator John Owan Enoh, to ensure  that house gifts expressly  pledged to players and officials of the 2013 FIFA U-17 World Cup-winning team by the then state’s Governor Senator Liyel  Imoke, be finally honoured.

    It is almost 10 years exactly when Senator Imoke, during a reception inside the  state’s council chamber in Calabar on Friday, 15th November 2013, promised house gifts  to the 21 players  and 10 officials of the victorious team for doing the country proud at the United Arab Emirates-hosted event.

     “We want to make an investment with you in property,” Senator Imoke  said in front of camera and in the presence of the then Minister of Youth & Sports Development, Mallam Bolaji  Abdulahi, and chieftains of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) led by the then President, Aminu Maigari.

     He added : “We have a new housing estate  already being developed and at the end of the completion of those estates, each one of you will have a small piece of property that is your own and that would have been fully developed; that  you can  rent out or occupy.”

    But Garba said it is shocking that the pledge made by Senator Imoke in 2013, on behalf of the government  and people of Cross River State, is yet to materialise.

     “Of course, we were all excited when Senator Liyel Imoke made the pronouncement at the Government House in Calabar when he hosted us for winning the FIFA U-17 World  Cup in 2013, but this is 2023 and ten years after the pledge, we are yet to be given the houses as promised,” Garba said, adding that efforts made during the tenure of Imoke’s successor, Professor Ben Ayade, bore no fruitful results either.

    “The  FIFA U-17 World Cup-winning team of 2013 was the baby of  the Cross River State because we  were camped at the Princeville Hotel in Calabar for many months, and we  played all our qualifying matches there. Unfortunately, we are yet to be given these houses despite efforts to have the pledge redeemed during the tenure of Professor Ayade.”

    He added:  “We are pleading with  the new Governor , His Excellency , Bassey Otu to use his good office  to fulfil this pledge made on behalf of the state government by Senator Imoke, and I’m also seeking the intervention of Minister of Sports Development, Senator John Enoh, who coincidentally comes from Cross River State, to ensure that justice is done on our behalf.

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     “We have waited so long. This year, we lost the hard working equipment manager of the team, Muhammed Kafa, and it would be in his good memory and show that our labour of winning the World Cup in 2013, was not in vain if we get these houses,” stated Garba.

    Speaking in the same vein, the skipper of the Golden Eaglets at the FIFA U-17 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates, Musa Muhammad while expressing his thanks for the magnanimity of the former Governor of Cross River State, Liyel Imoke then while they were camped in the state before the competition and on their return.

    But he stated his reservation for the inability of Cross Rivers State Government to redeem the house gifts promised the 21 players and 10 officials who were in the Golden Eaglets team in 2013.

    He beckoned on the incumbent Governor of the state, His Excellency, Bassey Otu and the Minister of Sports, John Owan Enoh to wade in and ensure their house gifts are redeemed.

    “It is always a great feeling for me to have captained the Golden Eaglets at the FIFA U17 World Cup in the UAE in 2013,” Muhammad said.

    “We want to thank Nigerians especially the people of Cross Rive r state for the support they gave us then. But as a team we are worried that 10 years after we won the World Cup we are yet to get the house gifts promised 21 0players and 10 officials of the team by the then Cross Rivers started Governor Liyel Imoke.

    “I’m using this opportunity to beg His Excellency Governor Bassey Otu as well as the Minister of Sports John Owan Enoh who is also from Cross River state to intervene and ensure we get those house gifts.”

  • U-17 w/Cup: FIFA confirms Eaglets list as 504 players lock horns

    By Julius Okorie

    Golden Eaglets 21-man team make the 504 players expected to battle for honours as the FIFA U-world cup kicks off eight days from today.

    The squad list for the 24 participating countries has been confirmed by the world soccer ruling body with five time champions Nigeria hoping to continue build on the successes recorded in the past.

    Considered the most successful side in the history of the tournament, the Nigeria won in 1985, 1993, 2007, 2013 and 2015 while losing in the finals on three other occasions in 1987, 2001 and 2009.

    Nigeria has been pitched in this 18th edition of the tournament against Hungary, Ecuador and Australia.  The Eaglets who have been shaping up in Brazil with friendly matches, will open campaign against Hungary on October 26, face Ecuador October 29 before rounding up the group stage with a November 1st clash with  Australia.

    Eaglets coach Manu Garba

    Below is the 21-man Golden Eaglets squad list confirmed by FIFA even as Coach Garba Manu looks forward to using his wealth of experience to again lead the team to the podium.

    Goalkeepers: Sunday Stephen, Joseph Oluwabusola, Daniel Jinadu

    Defenders: Charles Etim, Ferdinand Ikenna,Usman Ibrahim and Quadri Edun

    Midfielders: Samson Tijani,Hamzat Ojediran,  Peter Agba, Daniel Francis, Monsuru Opeyemi and  Ibrahim Said

    Forwards: Olakunle Olusegun, Wisdom Ubani, Divine Nwachukwu, Peter Olawale, Akinkunmi Amoo.  Oluwatimilehin Adeniyi  Ibraheem Jabaar and  Abba Bich.

  • Golden Eaglets book Mundial ticket first

    Five-time world champions Nigeria became the first African team to book a 2019 FIFA U-17 World Cup ticket after 1-0 defeat of Angola in Dar es Salaam on Wednesday.

    Olakunle Olusegun earned the ticket to the tournament semifinals and to Brazil 2019 when he hooked a 21st-minute penalty into the roof of the net, with Angola’s goalkeeper Geovani stranded. But the Golden Eaglets were guilty of profligacy and the technical crew certainly has much to do still.

    As it happened against host nation Tanzania on Sunday, the Eaglets proved to be masters of the use of space and close control, but mostly lacked the right ideas and punch in the final third, just as some passes went astray at critical moments.

    REad also: ‘Tanazania 2019 won’t be walkover for Golden Eaglets’

    Two-goal hero against Tanzania, Wisdom Ubani could have been on the scoresheet in the 11th minute but his fierce effort from a 22 –yard free kick went narrowly off target.

    Angola was not to be cowed, as Zito latched onto the ball a few metres from the centre and unleashed a rocket that goalkeeper Sunday Stephen, in for the jittery Suleman Shaibu, did well to punch away.

    Three minutes later, Stephen had to be alert to push away another fierce Angolan shot, but two minutes later, at the other end, Ubani’s swift turn and shot came quite close with Geovani beaten.

    An Angolan defender handled the ball in the box under pressure in the 21st minute, and Olusegun made no mistake from the spot to put Nigeria in front.

    They could have had many more, but Shedrack Tanko bundled against the upright in the 42nd minute when it appeared easier to score, and Olusegun’s effort to chip Goevani from a swift counter was well-read by the goalkeeper.

    In the second period, the Eaglets’ profligacy continued, even after the Angolans were reduced to 10 men in the 51st minute as Jose Cabincano earned a second yellow card. In the 53rd minute, Ubani’s stinging shot from 25 yards went narrowly over, and on the hour, when it appeared easier to score, Ubani passed the ball to onrushing Olusegun who missed from close range.

    Substitutes Ibraheem Jabaar, Divine Nwachukwu and Peter Agba could not effect any improvement in the Eaglets’ game, and Nwachukwu even missed a glorious opportunity with six minutes to the end. The win means that the Eaglets return to the FIFA U-17 World Cup after missing out of the last edition staged in India two years ago.

    Nigeria will certainly finish at the head of Group A if they avoid defeat against Uganda at the same venue on Saturday.

  • Golden Eaglets off to Tanzania

    Five-time world champions, Nigeria flew out of Abuja on Wednesday on their way to Tanzania to take part in the 13th Africa U-17 Cup of Nations taking place in that country from 14th – 28th April.

    Players and officials were seen off at the airport by Acting President of NFF, Seyi Akinwunmi, who charged them to do the nation proud by lifting the U-17 AFCON trophy in Dar es Salaam on the April 28th.

    The Golden Eaglets secured a ticket to Tanzania after winning the WAFU B U-17 Tournament in the Niger Republic in September last year and will be aiming to be one of Africa’s four flag-bearers at the FIFA U-17 World Cup finals already scheduled for Brazil later this year.

    Nigeria, Africa’s U-17 football powerhouse, edged fellow juggernauts Ghana on penalties in Niamey to secure their slot in Tanzania, and are in the same Group A as hosts Tanzania, Uganda and Angola.

  • ‘Eaglets ‘ll be ready for Turkey contest’

    Nigeria’s cadet national team, Golden Eaglets coach, Manu Garba has declared that his squad will be ready to take on all comers next month at an invitational competition in Turkey.

    Footballlive.ng gathered that Garba’s side will travel for the build-up competition in Turkey early next month, as they commence preparations for the 2019 Africa U-17 Cup of Nations in Tanzania.

    Garba, who won UAE 2013 FIFA U-17 World Cup with the like of Kelechi Iheanacho, Taiwo

    Awoniyi, Sunday Dele Alampasu and Isaac Success in his squad, but failed to qualify for the 2017 edition won by England, said his latest squad be ready before Tanzania 2019 begins on April 14.

    Nigeria are in Group A, alongside Tanzania, Angola and Uganda, ahead of which the Eaglets, who won the world title in 1985, 1993, 2007, 2013 and 2015, will be in Turkey next month for a build-up competition.

    The record extending five time Cadet World Cup winners reached for the U-17 AFCON by emerging winners of the West African Foot

    ball Union (WAFU) Zone B qualifiers in Benin Republic, and Garba expects his side to go all the way to glory in Tanzania and reach the World Cup in Peru.

    Although he admitted that his players are yet to reach optimum fitness levels, after recently returning to camp in Abuja, Garba says they will be ready physically, tactically and technically to shine in Turkey.

    Garba disclosed: “We are just into a week in training and I can say we are more than fifty percent set in aspect of techniques and tactical ability.

    ”As for physical fitness, we are still a bit behind. That not withstanding, we are trying to meet up with everything.

    “We want to make sure we get to at least eighty percent level of fitness so that we can give our best in the preparatory tournament in Turkey.

    ”The ultimate is to go to Tanzania, qualify for the World Cup as African champions, Nigeria being the best at U17 level.

    ”These are our aspirations. I happen to be one of the coaches that have two World Cup medals.

  • Golden Eaglets will be ready for CAN 2019

    Head Coach of the U-17 National Boys Team, Golden Eaglets, Manu Garba has assured that his five –time world champions would be ready for business when the 2019 Africa U-17 Cup of Nations opens in Tanzania on  April 14, 2019.

    Speaking to thenff.com, Garba said his wards already have the mentality of champions, but would not approach the finals in East Africa with an attitude of over-confidence. The man who led Nigeria to triumph at the 2013 FIFA U-17 World Cup tournament in the United Arab Emirates was reacting to Thursday’s Draw which put Nigeria in Group A alongside hosts Tanzania, Angola and Uganda.

    “We are champions of West Africa, which gives us a good feeling going to Tanzania. However, it is a tournament of champions as the other teams also won their regional tournaments.

    “We will prepare very well to conquer, in order to qualify for the FIFA U-17 World Cup finals coming up in Peru.”

    Group B has Guinea, Cameroon, Morocco and Senegal, with all four semi finalists guaranteed places at the FIFA World Cup finals.

    The 2019 Africa U-17 Cup of Nations will hold from April 14th to 28th, 2019. Nigeria won the world title in 1985, 1993, 2007, 2013 and 2015.

  • Nigeria draw Tanzania, Angola, Uganda in U-17 AFCON

    The Golden Eaglets of Nigeria have drawn hosts Tanzania, Angola and debutants Uganda in the 2019 Africa U-17 Cup of Nations.

    The draw, which took place in Dar-es-Salam on Thursday, pitches 2003 champions, Cameroon against Ghana, Morocco and Senegal.

    Nigeria will open the competition against hosts Tanzania on April 14, 2019 before going on to face Uganda and Angola on 17th and 20th April respectively.

    Read Also: Nigeria Qualify for U-17 AFCON in Tanzania

    CAF Director of Competitions, Samson Adamu conducted the draw assisted by captain of the Tanzania U-20 team, Michael Moris and former Taifa Stars player Mohamed Adolf Richard.

    The Golden Eaglets of Nigeria have won the U-17 AFCON in 2001 and 2007, beating Burkina Faso and Togo respectively.

    The competition holds from April 14-28 with the semi-finalists qualifying to represent the continent at the FIFA U-17 World Cup in Peru later in 2019.

    Group A – Tanzania, Nigeria, Angola, Uganda

    Group B – Guinea, Cameroon, Morocco, Senegal

  • WAFU: Nigeria Focus to Win Ghana in Final

    • Olusegun Leads Golden Boot Chase
    Golden Eaglets of Nigeria will on Saturday hope to beat arch-rival Ghana in the final of the WAFU-UFOA Zone B qualifiers with striker Olakunle Olusegun Junior leading the race to win the Golden Boot award.
    Olusegun currently tops the goal-scoring chats with four goals and will look to increase that tally against the Black Starlets.
    The young speed star scored twice in Nigeria’s 3-2 loss to Burkina Faso and also played a key part in the comprehensive 5-1 win against the Baby Elephants of Cote d’Ivory, scoring in the 23rd minute to make it 3-0.
    He followed it up with the Man of the Match gong in the 2-1 win over Republic of Niger in the semifinals of the qualifiers for the 2019 Africa U17 Cup of Nations to be held in Tanzania.
    Meanwhile, ahead of the match, the Eaglets have received a cash reward of One Million Naira for booking spot in the final of the Wafu-Ufoa Zone B qualifiers courtesy, NFF’s Technical committee chairman, Ahmed Yusuf.
    Nigeria has been crowned U17 world champions for five times in the year; 1985, 1993, 2007, 2013 and 2015 respectfully.