During the finals of the U17 world cup, you could literally hear Nigeria players on the bench screaming, 'abeg..abeg..move forward, we need to win so that our lives go change.' I heard this more than once on that day.

Those words reveal the mindset of those boys going into the U17. They are passionate to escape a life of hardship. This translates into team hardwork.

We only had 2 exceptional players in that team and they themselves were spurred by that mindset.

When they finally make it and graduate to the senior level with all those juicy club pays, their level of commitment and hardwork reduce. This is the reason why our senior teams do not perform to expectation.

The talent is there but lesser commitment to national duty.

Who else agrees with me apart from lalasticlala

ME and the guy under

I don't agree.....most of those guys don't get to enter decent foreign clubs except a few.hence,their talent and development is lost.A decent ckub woul rather go for their own rather than an african.

kurupt1:
I don't agree.....most of those guys don't get to enter decent foreign clubs except a few.hence,their talent and development is lost.A decent ckub woul rather go for their own rather than an african.

But the reality is that things get better after a successful U17 outing

Are these boys really 17 and below....

coolitempa:
Are these boys really 17 and below....

.

Ibelong2God:
.

how long does it take ifa to respond? Is he using MTN?

The truth is that they are way older than 17 they claim.

At that age their suprior physique would make them excel but when other countries catch up physically in their 20s they would stand no chance

Where in Nigerian Messi Stanley Okoro now? Or Crisantus, Or Opabunmi or Ezekiel Bala or Isaac promise or the various stars of the U17 in the past

raumdeuter:
The truth is that they are way older than 17 they claim.

At that age their suprior physique would make them excel but when other countries catch up physically in their 20s they would stand no chance

Where in Nigerian Messi Stanley Okoro now? Or Crisantus, Or Opabunmi or Ezekiel Bala or Isaac promise or the various stars of the U17 in the past

Exactly. Many of them are older than 17, so of course they will dominate now but once the playing field gets leveled and they start playing against their age mates then it's a different ball game all together.

POINT...

There are very many reasons and it's not just because of the players.

1)Many major footballing countries do not take the u17 and u20 tournaments seriously. I remember that a Nigerian wrote to the BBC World Service in 2007 to complain that they did not cover the u17 championship which Nigeria won. A BBC producer replied that it's just an u17 championship. He said that if they cover the u17, then they would have to cover the u15, the u13, etc.

2) Successful football nations prepare very well for the senior world cup. They do not leave anything to chance. For example, some England players slept in oxygen beds before the 2010 World Cup to enable them cope with the altitude in South Africa. The Super Eagles did not do anything to prepare themselves to cope with the altitude. I remember listening to Danny Shittu complain about the altitude in an interview with Mark Gleeson.

3) Interference: How do we select players and coaches for the national team? In most cases we can be professional in selecting players and coaches for our u17 team because the team does not attract much publicity before the tournament. On the other hand, there's a lot of interference when it comes to selecting players and coaches for the Super Eagles. Politicians, former players, businessmen, soldiers, etc all have their candidates that they want the NFF to select, regardless of whether that candidate is good or not.

4) What kind of football development policy do we have? What kind of league do we have? Some of the German players that played in this u17 tournament are already playing in some of the biggest clubs in Germany (Bayern Munich, Werder Bremen, etc) and it will be easier for them to break into the biggest clubs in Europe that have the best facilities and coaches. Our players are playing for Young Strikers, etc. Check out the clubs of players at this tournament. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_FIFA_U-17_World_Cup_squads

I'm going to address this strange argument about longevity.

You cannot say that the reason a player does not become a great success after his under 17 career is simply because he is too old. There are so many other factors involved.

1) Do we have a structure in place to help these players graduate to the senior level?

2) What kind of contracts do they sign after their youth career (Chris Ohenhen, Ahmed Garba, etc)?

3) What is the state of our domestic league (remember, many youth players return to their domestic league after competitions) and so many more reasons.

The final of China 85 was between Nigeria and Germany. How many of those players became successes after the competition? Jonathan Akpoborie and Marcel Witheczeck. Does that mean that they were the only under 16 players in both teams? Fact is, many players that are under 17 during the tournament will not go on to perform wonders in their senior career, while players who are above 17 could go on to have glittering careers. What did Florent Sinama Pongolle and Anthony LeTallec achieve with the French National Team?

The fact that some cheat does not mean that all of them are cheating, so my question is, do you have any proof that they are cheating? (I don't mean guesses or conjecture, I mean solid proof).

naptu2: Some players that have played for both the Golden Eaglets and the Super Eagles.

Nduka Ugbade (1985), Wilson Oruma (1993), Victor Ikpeba (1989), Nwankwo Kanu (1993), Celestine Babayaro (1993), Jonathan Akpoborie (1985), Mikel Obi (2003), Chinedu Ogbuke Obasi (2003), Mobi Oparaku (1993), Godwin Okpara (89), Karibe Ojigwe (93), James Obiorah (95), Christopher Nwosu (87), Angus Ikeji (87), Benedict Akwuegbu (89), Isaac Promise (2003), Precious Monye (89), Haruna Lukman (2007), Rabiu Ibrahim (2007), John Zaki (89) , Ogenyi Onazi (2009) and Kenneth Omeruo (2009).

naptu2:

Yeah. I actually tried to list all those that played for the Golden Eaglets and went on to have long and distinguished careers with the Super Eagles or in Europe.

Nduka Ugbade played for the Golden Eaglets (China 85), Flying Eagles and Super Eagles (he would have been the first person to play in all levels of FIFA World Cup, ie u17, u21 and senior world cup, if Westerhof had picked him for USA 94). He also won gold at Tunisia 94.

Celestine Babayaro played at u17 (Japan 93), captained the u23 to Sydney 2000, won gold in Atlanta 96 and played at the 1998 world cup. He also won many titles with Chelsea FC.

Jonathan Akpoborie played at u17 (China 85) and u21 levels and also played for the Super Eagles. He won many titles with Stuttgart FC and was one of the highest goal scorers in Europe in 1997 (joint top scorer in the European Cup Winners Cup).

Victor Ikpeba played at u16 (Scotland 89), u20 and u23 levels and also played for the Super Eagles. He won many titles with AS Monaco and (together with Sonny Anderson) led them to the semi-finals of the Champions League in 1997/1998 season. He played at the 1998 World Cup and won silver at the 2000 Nations Cup.

Nwankwo Kanu played at Japan 93, captained the Dream Team to Olympic gold in 96, played at the 98 and 2002 world cups and won many titles with Ajax, Inter Milan and Arsenal.

Mikel Obi played u17 in 2003, u21 in 2005, won the nations cup in 2013 and has won many titles with Chelsea.

These players have won many titles and played for Nigeria for around 10 years.