BY JOE APU
Golden Eaglets of Nigeria head coach, Manu Garba has assured the nation that the right talents would be picked to rebuild a new team despite the huge turnout of players that stormed the on-going screening exercise.
Coach Garba stated this much when the NFF executive board led by Amaju Pinnick visited the screening centre. According to thenff.com, the coach had expressed confidence in the ability of the technical crew to assemble talented crop of players capable of defending the proud record of the country at the U-17 level.
“So far, so good and we have been able to pick about 100 players from almost 2000 players we have been able to screen,” stated Garba. “We are going to prune the list to 60 so that the players can go for the MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) Test which is part of the eligibility process at this level,” he informed.
Earlier, President of the NFF, Amaju Pinnick who came in company of a number of board members and some football stakeholders had commended the Golden Eaglets technical crew for their efforts in pruning down the number of players to 100 from over 2000.
Speaking to thenff.com, Pinnick stated that the large turnout is a vindication of the abundance of talents in the country, even as he challenged the coaching crew to discover more Kelechi Iheanachos, Victor Osimhens and their likes for the country.
“This exercise is competitive and I’m always very proud to see young players play football but at the end of the day, only about 50 or 60 would be picked by the coaches,” noted Pinnick. “But the players have shown discipline and we have also seen dexterity on the part of some of them and I’m just overwhelmed; and I think it is going to be difficult for the technical study group to arrive at a sizeable number.”
According to Pinnick, football has become an integral sector of the economy, adding that young players have seen that football is a leeway to better the lot of their families. He further said Nigeria has created an enviable record at the U-17 level after the Golden Eaglets won its fifth title in Chile last year, and asked the coaching crew to maintain the momentum: “The U-17 World Cup is our exclusive preserve and we must keep on winning it.”