Nigeria’s cadet national team, Golden Eaglets are set to get tours of Jordan and Qatar before heading out for the 2019 African U17 Cup of Nations in Tanzania, for which they qualified last Saturday in Niamey, Niger Republic, footballlive.ng can report.
This much was disclosed by Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) president, Melvin Amaju Pinnick, in the wake of the Eaglets’ 3-1 penalties’ shootout victory against Ghana in the Arica U17 Cup of Nations zonal qualifiers, following a 1-1 draw at regulation time.
After picking the sole ticket from the West Africa B-zone, Pinnick said the Eaglets will get adequate preparations, so that they can win the tournament in Tanzania next year.
Pinnick added that the federation was pleased with the exploit of the team during the zonal qualifiers in Niger Republic, despite losing major players to MRI test and starting with a 3-2 loss against Burkina Faso in their first match.
The Eaglets beat Ghana on Saturday night to win the ticket, while Samson Tijani emerged as the Most Valuable Player and Olakunle Olusegun was top scorer with four goals.
A very excited Pinnick said afterwards: “What we have now is a bunch of players that are truly young and with a bright future.
“For us in the federation, we have resolved to treat them like Super Eagles right from this stage. We want them to be in the right mental and psychological mood as they grow up.
“The same way we prepared the Eagles for the World Cup in Russia is the way we are going to prepare them for Tanzania.
“We are looking beyond Tanzania. We are looking at the future and this is the time to begin to psyche up these kids.”
