Nigeria’s 2013 FIFA U-17 World Cup-winning coach, Manu Garba, has again rallied behind the Golden Eaglets’ quest for a successful defence of their title at the forthcoming global cadet championship in Chile.
Nigeria holds the enviable record of four titles in this category with victories in 1985, 1993, 2007 and 2013, and Garba, who was instrumental to the last two successful campaigns, believe the class of 2015 can go all the way yet again.
Reacting to the Chile 2015 World Cup draw that pitched Nigeria against host Chile, Croatia and USA, Garba reckoned the Golden Eaglets under his former assistant, Emmanuel Amuneke would have to gird their loins.
“It’s not an easy group, “noted Garba. “Chile is the host and South American teams are always good.” He continued: “Croatia is part of former Yugoslavia along with Serbia that just won the U-20 FIFA World Cup in New zealand which shows their football culture is good and USA plays with aggression. But they all are up against Nigeria, four-time World Cup winner and the No. 1 ranked team at that level.
“I’m very optimistic that with good preparations and motivation, we can qualify from this tough group and go all the way to excel and I wish my dear country good luck in Chile,” added Garba.
Meanwhile, the Golden Eaglets continued with their preparation ahead of the World Cup with a 10-1 ‘cricket score win’ against Beautiful Tour FC of Abuja on Friday. New recruit Funso Bamigboye grabbed a first half hat trick including a masterpiece as he dribbled almost half of the field before slotting the ball into the net. Beautiful Tours’ consolatory goal was scored towards the end of first half by Ugochukwu Chidiebere. But there was also a second half brace for Eaglets’ Terem Moffi as well as a goal each for Joel Esiklie, Haggi Katho, Gavi Thompson, Suleiman Abdullahi and Emmanuel Ezekiel. In the meantime, Friday’s win took Golden Eaglets’ goal tally to an impressive 194 in 58 domestic and international matches.
