The national U-17 team, the Golden Eaglets, are drawing the curtain on their preparation at the ASPIRE Academy in Qatar but the highlights is the performance of a youngster, who should be better described as a ‘genius’.
Coach John Obuh will lead the Eaglets to defend the title they won in 2007 and he has had to cope with a lot of pressure on his team’s level of preparedness for this competition. But after eventually travelling with 30 players on a training tour of Qatar for the last phase of their build up, the Eaglets handler must come up with his final squad of 21 players in the next 48 hours, being the deadline given by the world football governing body FIFA.
Top on the list
One name that is expected to top the list is Heartland striker, Stanley Okoro who has put up an impressive performance to the delight of the technical crew. Eaglets assistant coach, Monday Odigie confirmed to NEXTSports, in a phone interview from Doha in Qatar, that Okoro has been an outstanding figure in the team’s forward line so far in their preparation.
“We have quite a number of good strikers in the squad who have been doing well here and Stanley has been very impressive scoring a lot of goals in our friendly games, which is quite good for the team. It has been a good experience for the team all round and we hope the players can put what they have gained into use in the competition,” Odigie said.
Not so little
The Eaglets have played three friendly matches in their build up programme in Qatar and Okoro has accounted for six of the 21 goals they have netted.
Left-footed Okoro who his fondly referred to as ‘Little Messi’ by fans of his Premier League club, Heartland must truly be a ‘genius’ like the Argentine whizkid looking at his antecedence within the short spell of football career.
NEXTSports investigations revealed that the striker had a two-year spell at Insurance football club, Edo state after which he joined Heartland of Owerri where he has been playing for about two years. He has been a key figure in Heartland’s run to the final of this year’s CAF Champions League, scoring three goals in the campaign. He only rejoined the Eaglets in Qatar after Heartland helping to a 4-0 win over Kano Pillars in Owerri, in their first leg, semi final clash.
Omo Ajabu is another player whohas also been in good goal-scoring form, netting five times in the 14-1 rout of Qatari Sports Club, and Nigerians are patiently waiting to see how the two players and the rest of the new Eaglets will develop their careers to the top level after the Nigeria 2009 U-17 Cup.
Former U-17 stars turned flops
Philip Osondu - He was the Most Valuable Player and the third highest goal scorer at the 1987 U-17 World Cup in Canada. He got a contract with Belgian top side following his exploits at the cadet competition. But Osondu failed to make it to the first team of the club and could not also replicate his performance at the 1989 U-20 World Youth Championship in Saudi Arabia.
Kayode Keshinro
Keshinro was impressive as a striker alongside Victor Ikpeba in the Eaglets squad at the 1989 U-17 World Cup in Scotland. He moved to Belgium after the competition but he never got to play at thetop level.
Peter Anosike
He was joint-second in the top scorer chart behind golden shoe winner, Wilson Oruma at the 1993 U-17 World Cup in Japan, netting five goals, same as Nwankwo Kanu. After the tournament,
Anosike also moved to Belgium to join Gent and barely made any impact with the first team. He had a brief stint with another Belgian club, Deinze after which he moved to Perth Glory in Australia. He later joined Marine Castle United in Singapore and never progressed to the top level of the national team.
Femi Opabunmi
Opabunmi was the second highest scorer and bronze ball winner at the 2001 edition in Trinidad and Tobago. He became the third youngest player to play at the FIFA World Cup after featuring for the Super Eagles against England in Korea/Japan 2002. He played for FC Zurich of Switzerland after moving from Shooting Stars of Ibadan but not much is heard about him now, eight years after featuring at the Under 17 competition.
Macauley Chrisantus
He was top scorer in the last edition in South Korea, helping Nigeria to win the competition for the third time. He was also runners up for the MVP award but the world is still waiting to see Chrisantus living up to those potentials. He joined Hamburg of Germany from FC Abuja but he is now on loan at Bundesliga 2 side, Karlsruhe.
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