Golden Eaglets resume camp Wednesday, says Ugbade

By ljeoma Okigbo

Nigeria’s Under 17 Men’s Football team, Golden Eaglets will resume camp on Wednesday after taking a break due to the general elections.

Mr Nduka Ugbade, Coach for the U-17 team, tolld the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja said about 90 of the players who have undergone an earlier Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) would return to Abuja.

“About 90 players who have passed the MRI will resume camp on Wednesday.

“Thereafter, the number will be trimmed down to 60 after the official MRI to be conducted by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).

“I am greatly satisfied with the number of talents seen so far. I have a pool of athletes to choose from but talent in itself, is no longer enough.

The talent has to be utilised, trained, go through the necessary requirement to produce results in the game,” he said.

NAN reports that the team is preparing for the U-17 Africa Cup of Nations in scheduled to hold in May in the cities of Algiers, Constantine and Annaba in Algeria.

NAN also reports that the U-17 male team have been drawn into Group ‘B’.

After an impressive showing in the WAFU Zone B Championship in June 2022 ended with them emerging as champions, the Ugbade-tutored team qualified for the group stage of the Nations Cup.

They were drawn alongside Morocco, South Africa and Zambia.

The Golden Eaglets have won the competition on two occasions, with their most recent title coming from the 2007 squad that went on to win the World Cup.

In the last edition of the tournament in 2019, FC Copenhagen winger Akinkuni Amoo was in the squad that finished fourth in the competition.

The best four teams from the Africa Cup of Nations will qualify for the 2023 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Peru between November and December 2023.

NAN reports that Group A has Algeria, Senegal, Congo, Somalia while Group ‘C’ has Cameroon, Mali, Burkina Faso and South Sudan.

(NAN)