The Nigeria U-17 team have departed from Lagos to the capital city of Lome, ahead of their Wednesday’s opening game in the West African Football Union (WAFU B) U17 Tournament.
The WAFU B U17 Tournament is taking place in Lome from 5th – 20th January 2021.
The five-time world champions, Nigeria, and three-time world champions, Ghana, headline the seven-team WAFU tourney.
The Golden Eaglets flew into Lome on Sunday morning from Lagos, with a squad of 25 players.
Coach Fatai Amoo’s tutored side will be jostling to pick the ticket from the WAFU tournament to represent the region in this year’s CAF U17 Cup of Nations taking place in Morocco.
Having seen how their ‘seniors’, the Nigeria U20 team fumbled at the WAFU B U20 Tournament in Benin Republic last month, the Golden Eaglets will want to avoid the same pitfall.
The Eaglets’ first encounter in Lome will be against the Ivorians, at the Stade Municipal on Wednesday from 4 p.m., and should serve as a pointer to how much the Eaglets are keen to conquer Africa again.
On Saturday at the same venue, they clash with Ghana’s Black Starlets in a potentially explosive encounter between two teams with eight world titles between them.
Hosts Togo will open the two-week tournament against Niger Republic at the Stade Kegue on Tuesday, hours before Group A’s other teams Benin Republic and Burkina Faso clash at the same venue. Nigeria, Ghana, and Cote d’Ivoire make up the three-team Group B.
Nigeria remains the most successful country in the world at the U-17 level having conquered the world in 1985, 1993, 2007, 2013 and 2015
The Complete Golden Eaglets’ List are:
Goalkeepers: Destiny Emuwahen; Abdulbasit Abbas: Saheed Jimoh; Defenders: Victor Udoh; Joseph Kuteyi; Chukwuemeka Egbu; Philip Titiloye; Oludapo Akintola; Emmanuel John: Midfielders: Benjamin Mustapha; Oluwatomiwa Kolawole; Rabiu Ahmed; Samuel Akere; Vince Osuji; Haruna Hassan; Wingers/Forwards: Michael Emmanuel; Gideon Atoyebi; Samson Ogunmola; Christian Nwachukwu; Peter Asuquo; Basheet Hamzat; Ahmed Abdullahi; Abdullahi Bewene; Joseph Arumala, Stanley Iheanacho.
