When you go to Leopold Senghor Stadium on 8 of March
2015 to watch Senegal’s under 20 team play the opening game of Africa Youth
Championship (AYC) against Nigeria, go with an open heart. Perhaps, you’re a
Senegalese fan and you don’t know much about the Nigerian side – please, don’t
go with so much expectations.
It’s nothing new if Nigeria’s Flying Eagles beat the
host Senegal 6 – 0 in their home ground. I can tell you Flying Eagles is
capable of scoring a dozen goals in preliminary group stage. I am not
exaggerating; goal scoring is the trademark of this stunning Nigerian team.
Nigeria will face host Senegal, Congo and Cote
d’Ivoire in Group A of the preliminary rounds of AYC, and many analysts has
tagged it as a very competitive group.
Something going for the for the flying Eagles is the
team has been together for a long time, longer than any other team and has the
reputation of the champions of FIFA Under 16 World Cup in 2013.
For the first time, Nigeria Football Federation
(NFF) allowed its under 16 players to all graduate directly into the Under 20.
Perhaps, the reason for such decision was the way the team demolished every
country it encountered during the FIFA Under16 World Cup. The Golden Eaglets
won so convincible that NFF decided to retain both the players and the coaching
crew: Manu Garba and Nduka Ugbade.
The team is even stronger now. Some of the key
players dropped due to over age, are now part of the under20 team. Moreover,
some of the players are now more exposed: Kelechi Iheanacho and Chidibere
Nwakali now play for English club - Manchester City; Musa Yahaya of Tottenham
Hotspur, Chidera Eze for Porto of Portugal and Taiwo Awoniyi for the Swedish Club -
Kalmar.
As I write this post, Semi Ajayi is under going trials
at Sunderland and Moses Simon has recently signed for the Belgium club – KAA
Gent. Agents and Scouts are daily hovering the Nigeria’s under20 camp in Kaduna
and before the close of January Transfer window, more of the team players may
travel out for trials.
This isn’t a distraction at all, The team in its
build up for the Super 6 tournament beat NDC Warriors 6 – 0 last weekend.
