As this yr’s FIFA U17 World Cup continues in Qatar with Nigeria, five-time champions of the Cadet Mundial, absent for the second straight version, the successful formulation utilized by Ambassador Fanny Ikhayere Amun at Japan ’93 has been forwarded as an answer.
Sports247 reviews that the Eaglets are usually not at Qatar 2025 and won’t be on the subsequent version to be hosted by the identical nation in 2027 as a result of the Nigerian squad remains to be unable to transcend the WAFU-B zonal qualifiers.
Failing to scale the zonal hurdle means the Eaglets can not even characteristic on the African U17 Cup of Nations, from which the continent’s 4 representatives emerge for the Cadet Mundial.
The sordid improvement has now left many Nigerians looking for lasting options to the massive setback dealing with youth soccer within the nation, at the same time as the difficulty generates heated debate every day throughout the nation.
Including his voice to the debacle is a former member of the medical crews of varied Nigerian sports activities groups within the 80s and 90s, Dr Dipo Odunuga, who declared that Fanny Amun’s success story of Japan ’93 ought to be revisited with a purpose to revive Nigeria’s glory days.
Odunuga acknowledged as a lot throughout the maiden version of Inside Naija Sports activities, a stay streaming on-line programme aired through YouTube from the tv studio of Sports247 Naija.
The outspoken retired medical practitioner declared, “I consider Nigeria ought to use the Fanny Amun precept. Fanny Amun’s blueprint was merely to hunt round all around the nation for hidden abilities.
“I used to be with him when he was on the Underneath-17 World Cup in Japan. That was in 1993, however he had already began his build-up in 1991.”
Aside from noting how Amun, fondly known as ‘The Transformer of Skills,’ began his preparations early, Odunuga recalled additional that the previous coach, who later turned the secretary-general of then Nigeria Soccer Affiliation (NFA) and now a writer, additionally ensured he found gifted children from all throughout the nation.
“Fanny Amun was travelling throughout all of the states in Nigeria. He was recognizing and selecting a gaggle of boys who have been really under-17 … not like what now we have these days.
“He was in a position to assemble about 200 gamers to start out with, and he later sifted them to 30 simply earlier than we departed for Japan. As of late, what you see is that they need ready-made gamers within the Golden Eaglets.”
Odunuga concluded by advocating a radical and full reliance on actually younger gamers from soccer academies to fill spots within the Eaglets, as in opposition to looking for gamers within the league.
“These days, they normally supply Eaglets’ gamers from the nationwide league. However, I all the time ask, ‘Are you able to get actual under-17 gamers in our league?’ That, to me, is a fraud.
“That was what we noticed within the final squad that Manu Garba rushed in placing collectively. They mentioned the gamers have been from soccer academies. However, it’s so unhappy that lots of the gamers in these so-called academies are virtually as outdated as these within the Tremendous Eagles,” Odunuga lampooned.
