HAPPY MOMENT: All hail the Golden Eaglets

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Golden Eaglets

We join all our countrymen in celebrating Nigeria’s victorious Under 17 national football team, the Golden Eaglets, who last week defeated Mali by two goals to nil to clinch the 16th edition of FIFA’s Junior World Cup in Chile. By the feat, the Eaglets retained the cup won by their predecessors in 2013 thereby making Nigeria the most successful nation in the tournament’s history with five titles and three runners up. The Eaglets of Nigeria won the first edition in 1985 and went on to win the 1993, 2007, 2013 and now 2015 editions.

This is also the first time that the Nigerian squad was not accused of falsifying the age of the players. The competition’s organizers acknowledged that this is the most youthful team Nigeria has ever presented in the competition’s history.

Nigeria’s exploit in the U-17 category extends beyond winning the trophy a record of five times. Four Nigerians have won the competition’s Most Valuable Player award known as the Golden Ball. In 1987 it was Philip Osundu; Sani Emmanuel won it in 2009; Kelechi Iheanacho won in 2013 and Kelechi Nwakali won the award this year.

 In the Golden Shoe award category, Nigeria’s Victor Osimten set the record of scoring the highest goals in the competition’s history with his 10 goals’ haul in the just concluded edition while Wilson Oruma and Macauley Chrisantus got the award in 1993 and 2007 for their 6 and 7 goals respectively.
Nigerian goalkeepers are not left out of tournament glory as Dele Alampasu won the 2013 Golden Glove award as the competition’s best goalkeeper. This country’s team also won the fair play award four times in 1993, 2001, 2009 and 2013.
The triumphant Eaglets made Nigeria proud in the comity of nations and brought back memories of 1996 when the nation’s representatives won the football gold medal at the Olympic Games in Atlanta.
The success of the Eaglets is an African one as the continent became the most successful continental zone with 7 tournament wins (5 for Nigeria, 2 for Ghana) and 6 times as runner up. Notably the 1993 final was contested by two African teams making it the first time when the final was contested by two teams from the same Confederation.

 Two African teams also played the 2015 final with Mali replacing Ghana (disqualified for age violation) when Nigeria and Mali made it to the final and Nigeria got their fifth win.
The victory of the Eaglets has once again proved the prowess of Nigerian youths in global football competition and has left raised the question as to why the nation has not been doing nearly as well in the senior category. Since President Buhari assumed office on May 29, Nigerian athletes have excelled in the global arena in other sports apart from football having won the African Basketball Championship, which qualifies the country for the Olympics games. The Falconets also qualified for the Under 20 World Cup taking place next year. A Nigerian also won the World Scrabble Championship.

The telephone call that President Buhari placed to the Eaglets’ camp the night before the final was inspired them in the final match against Mali. Having so inspired them, it is expected that the president would lusciously reward the boys.
After winning the tournament’s first edition in 1985, then military head of state Buhari directed state governors to reward the boys. He recently found out that his order was never carried out and has vowed to rectify it. It was President Olusegun Obasanjo who introduced the controversial policy of rewarding victorious athletes a Presidential handshake. President Goodluck Jonathan somewhat improved on that.

Nigerians now expect a better reward package for the Eaglets for their dedication and doggedness in being the first Nigerian team to win this Cup back to back. The boys also deserve commendation for their decision to stay and play for Nigeria knowing that many other Nigerians now chose to play for other countries. Government should use the opportunity of this victory to strengthen sports in schools as well as develop a sustainable strategy for age grade sport in the country to ensure that the nation attain its ultimate goal of one day wining the senior World Cup.










Source: Daily Trust

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