This was the best of the five Nigerian youth teams that won U-17 world cup in 1985, 1993, 2007, 2013 and 2015. Coach Amunike simply delivered both tactically and technically and his boys are living the best of their lives in Europe top five leagues. Chukwuze and Osimhen leading the lines, creating much awareness and raising the bar for Africa. Osimhen is a monster for SSC Napoli banging goals for free.. Scudetto and highest goals award on the burner. Love Naija !
But they didn't lose any game in the Afcon Qualifiers, they also didn't lose any game in the worldcup qualifiers, they have the top scorer of the Qualifiers Osimhen also 4 wins and 2 draws is not exactly struggling is it?
Again the afcon is over Nigeria had 3 wins in 4 games defeating Egypt with ease, and also climbing up the FIFA rankings, Nigeria remains top 5 in Africa and top 35 in the world. I'm still trying to understand what you mean by "Struggling" Even at the worldcup go and watch the games Nigeria lost to teams like Argentina it is ALWAYS a narrow win by last minute goal with 1 goal margin and this is an Argentine team with Messi. Nigeria has many records including being the highest ranked African team of all time when they reached 5th on the Fifa ranking in the 1990's. So what exactly do you mean by Struggling.
The problem with our developmental teams / players i.e U17, 20, 23 not progressing very well is not entirely due to age cheating. We agree that age cheating is rampant and indeed a huge problem but there are other factors responsible for their lack of progress beyond ageing. There are many factors responsible for their lack of progress which includes administration, technical, social/health, psychological and economic reasons. 1. Our local leagues are not well managed and developed; which means, if no European clubs come for any of the player, their chances of progressive development will be hampered. Also, some of them are still doing well in our local leagues but who remembers them? Especially that our national team handlers rarely consider players playing in the local league 2. This problem of lack of progression is also not peculiar with Nigerian team. If you look at many countries even those with developed leagues, how many of those players really excel in later years? For example, this particular team (that is a reference point) is not doing so badly. As at the time of writing this comment, Orji Okonkwo and Kingsley Michael are with Bologna in Serie A. Kelechi Nwakali is with Arsenal on loan at Porto, and has been called up to the Senior national team. Chukwueze is a new revelation with Villarreal FC in Spain, Osimhen is doing well and would soon be called up to the Super Eagles and many others. If we also look at past age grade tournaments, how many of the European players (since we often use them as a benchmark) have actually made it through to the senior level from the juniors? 3. The strategy and focus of our football administrators and coaches also need to change from that of 'winning cups' or accolades to holistic developmental football. The development of the lads should be more of focus than the 'temporal' success of laurels. The major reasons many youth coaches engage over aged players for tournaments is because we are a people who only recognize 'winning' rather than development. 4. The mentality of our society also need to change. Once any of the lads excel, the family and community sees them as cash cows and the focus is now about how much money the boy can make rather than how can the boy progress professionally. This causes a lot of distractions and also put the boys under pressure to look for any club anywhere, anyhow just to make some money. 5. Our FA also lack necessary administrative, technical and professional abilities to nurture these boys to the next level or stardom. 6. Because the competitions occur every 2 years, the regular occurrence makes it difficult to follow up with the boys in terms of mentorship, professional development and other assistance, as focus is shifted every 2 years to new boys and the previous ones are easily forgotten and left on their own. This is a difficult one to deal with. As, if the games are staged with many years apart, how do we handle the budding talents that would have come through within the period of no games? We need balance between maintaining current discoveries and new discoveries and that requires a lot of work from our FAs (both at the state, local and federal levels) 7. The government must also jettison the huge cash reward to these boys. It is a distraction. Once some of them get exposed to a lot of cash, the hunger to really excel will reduce. 8. Most of our players also lack the discipline and commitment require to perform at the highest level. This hurt but it is the truth. Small money gets into their heads and they start misbehaving. Carrying girls up and down, drinking and partying and no longer taking training seriously. Once they have money, their parents (who are sometimes poor and dependent on them) cannot even advise them anymore. All these contributes to the premature downfall in their professional life. Many don't also pay attention to their health, diet and routines that builds an athlete into a world champion. 9. An average Nigerian lacks longevity, we like quick fix, immediate glory etc. This is why we cannot do well in long distance races or games/sport that require endurance. This social, physiological and psychological conditioning also makes it difficult to stay playing professional for long term especially once they come to money. 10. Lastly, most of these players, play football to escape poverty not because they really love the game. Its all about the money. So, once they get a club that pays them decent salary that makes them escape poverty and take care of relations, they loose the hunger to excel. After all, 'na money I dey find and I don get am'. 11. Mismanagement. Our administrators are champions of mismanagement both financial, material and human resources. This is the reason why the grassroot football is dead in Nigeria. The annual football support grants from FIFA is meant to go into grassroot football development but the FA would rather divert this either to personal pocket or other unrelated ventures. Most players that should be in academies are playing street football, 'Sunday Sunday soccer' and 'betting' or Jeun Jeun. So by the time they are discovered, they are not well developed, over aged and also have learnt 'street credibility' rather than football credibility which later play out in their future football careers. Does the NFF have a complete database of all our age grade players (both current and past)? Do they know where each of those players are currently? Can they map their progress and setbacks? Which of them need technical, legal, managerial, medical, financial and phycological assistance? I bet if they know. 12. Most of our academies are not well structured to develop our players holistically. Some concentrate only on soccer skills with zero life skills and other personal development curriculum. Football is not only about skills and ability to kick ball around, but wholistic development of a player (mentally, socially and educationally) goes along way to build the player. 13. Unscrupulous Agents. Most of the player agents are only after money and immediate rewards not necessarily the player's welfare or career. It is all about quick money. They would rather advise or sell the player to the highest or immediate bidder not necessarily the club that will nurture and develop the boy. They can even sell the player to the remotest countries in the world (the reasons you know no longer hear or see some of them). Sometimes, the contracts are not better than slavery which affects the player physiologically and further impact on his performance and career. It is a dog eat dog industry and our FA will need to work with the players to navigate those dangerous waters.
Nigeria is by all means one of the most blessed country, in Africa, and the entire world. Blessed with everything, unfortunately cursed with the worst leadership anywhere on earth. So sad!
Everytime its ur song, cursed with good leadership bla bla bla! Are u better? Most Nigerians talk about bad leaders everytime, but they themselves are crooks in their place of work. Majority of us are bad thats why we at this level. You cannot give what u do not have. Again the leaders are a reflection of the society.
Some Nigerians asking very annoying questions here.Were are this guys now?. Dudes, that tournament held just in 2015 and if y'all a football fan then y'all should know were those guys are. They are all playing top football in Europe best clubs at the moment and some has already featured for the super eagles. And some talking about age cheat, hey where were you when fifa used mri scan on them? and the ones that cheated during camping for qualifications were all sent packing?
Why is no highlight of super falcons team of 1994 to 2000 on the Internet. This is not good at all from the NFF side. We rarely se the highlights of kikelomo Ajayi, mercy akinde, ikiru okosieme, chijiene, Florence omogbemi etc. Shame to NFF.
Nwakali the Captain is with Porto and is currently in the Senior national team for the AFCON qualifier against Seychelles, Chukwueze is currently with Villarreal FC in Spain, Oji Okonkwo and Kingsley Micheal is with Bologna in Serie A, top scorer is on loan to Charleoi in Belgium etc, they are doing quite well club wise and should be more prominent in the Super Eagles in the next 2 - 3 years. Progression is not automatic and it depends on how these players are maturing and developing.
Well, you are not a football fan if you are you won't be asking that question. They all now play top football in Europe and some has made super eagles debut
These boys are oldmen, where are they when it reach world cup? Nigeria has never reached even quater finals of a world cup why? Yet the boys they are playing with go high in world cup and even club levels, Or these boys are already old?
Shut up if you don't know what to say. Up to 4 members of this team recently got senior cap. The no 8 Chukwueze is the new star of Villareal. Scored the winner just last weekend in Laliga. 3 other members of the team are making waves in Serie A & B. Osimen the no 9, already has 6 goals this season in Belgium. Of the 2013 set 4 were members of 2018 World Cup squad. This squad's time will be 2022. But check out next year's AFCON. At least 2 players will make the final 23 so u see how stupid you sound as these players are currently between 19 & 20 years old. For u to expect to be in the 2018 World Cup shows your stupidity level.
