The national U-20 team, the Flying Eagles, under Coach Ladan Bosso were in Egypt for over two weeks campaigning in the AFCON tournament and eventually, they won a bronze medal in the continental football showcase following their 4-0 win over Tunisia in the classification match. In the group stage, Nigeria lost 1-0 to eventual winners Senegal in their opening match but bounced back to beat hosts Egypt 1-0 and Mozambique 2-0 to earn a ticket into the knockout stage. The Flying Eagles defeated Congo 1-0 in the quarterfinals to book a ticket to the World Cup slated for Indonesia later in the year. It was indeed an achievement of the first target given to the team.

We recall that the Secretary General of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Muhammed Sanusi, and the Minister of Sports, Sunday Dare, commended the lads for booking a ticket to the World Cup and urging the players to go for the trophy. However, the team crumbled in the semi-final game, losing 1-0 to football minnows, The Gambia.

We make bold to say that from the first match, the Flying Eagles did not show promise as there was no semblance of coaching in the team. It was tough for the players to string five passes together and they were lucky in the last eight stages to have scored courtesy of an own goal against a better coordinated Congolese side. That Bosso even led the team to Egypt was an issue for many keen followers of the game who could recall that this same man was in the saddle over a decade ago and failed to deliver good results.

The reasons for his choice could only be explained by the Federation. This is not good in a country that has many qualified coaches and experienced former internationals that undoubtedly can do better. One hopes the NFF monitored this tournament with a view to identifying and picking the best players from this team for the Olympics team and the Super Eagles. Besides, the entire team is not looking like one that could compete favourably at the World Cup.

There must be creativity in the middle of the team while the attack, which lacks a potent striker, must be strengthened as well. After emerging champions at the WAFU B event, which is a sub-regional meet, the Flying Eagles struggled at the African stage of the U-20 event which also means the World Cup might be a bridge too far for the team except drastic changes are effected in the squad. No doubt, there will be tough opposition from all parts of the globe at the World Cup and it will take real focus and hard work to turn the current Flying Eagles into a bunch good enough for the herculean task.

We are aware that the world football governing body, FIFA always emphasises that age-grade football is designed for developmental purposes to identify future talents and guide affiliated federations on how best to handle the transition of talented players from one cadre to the other. For every match or tournament within and outside the country, the NFF is expected to have some scouts evaluating these players to possibly pencil down some of them for the next cadre of the national teams. It is, however, sad that in Nigeria, and even the wider African continent, administrators think more about winning than the long-term gains of the age-grade football tournaments. Winning is good especially for bragging rights but the most important thing for age-grade football is the development of the players after the event.

Over the years, Nigeria has been fantastic in continental and global age-grade tournaments in men’s and women’s football, but this has not translated into results with the senior national teams. One can recall that a good number of the victorious Japan’ 93 World Cup winning set of the national U-17 team under Coach Fanny Amun later featured for the U-20 team and three years after they were in the U-23 team that won the gold medal for Nigeria at the Olympic Games in Atlanta. Some of the players then were Emmanuel Babayaro, Karibe Ojigwe, Celestine Babayaro, Wilson Oruma, Nwankwo Kanu and Mobi Oparaku.

Apart from winning the Olympic gold medal, Nigeria has also won silver (Beijing 2008) and bronze (Rio 2016). The Golden Eaglets has won the FIFA U17 World Cup five times while the U-20 team, the Flying Eagles, has won silver medal twice at the FIFA World Cup for that squad and hold the best continental record of seven wins at the AFCON U-20 event. And so, we expect the NFF to double its efforts across all areas of the preparation for the World Cup billed for South Asia this summer. It is obviously too late to remove Bosso but adding another sound coach to beef the technical crew will be a good idea while the head coach should also be encouraged to work on the weak areas in the team. We strongly believe that if necessary steps are not taken, the U-20 team will embarrass Nigeria in Indonesia.