I wrote a post a long time ago and I've just found a Twitter thread that provides another example of what I wrote in that post, but unfortunately I can no longer find my post.
Many Nigerians have weird ideas about the FIFA cadet championships and that post demonstrated how weird those ideas were.
1) Nigerians would often talk about someone that was a star at cadet level (U16 or U17), but who didn't go on to achieve success at senior level and then claim that this is proof that the person was over age. That makes no sense whatsoever.
Lots of people achieve success at cadet level, but fail to achieve the same success at senior level. Do you remember Freddy Adu, who was hailed as the next Pele when he was a teenager (Alex Ferguson spoke glowingly about him and he signed his first professional contract when he was just 14), but didn't achieve anything as a senior professional? Do you remember Florient Sinama Pongolle and Anthony Letallec, who were the stars of the French team that won the 2001 Under 17 World Cup in Trinidad and Tobago, but did not achieve anything great as seniors?
In fact, if we follow that line of thinking, then we might say that only Jonathan Akpoborire and Marcel Witeczek were under 16 in the 1985 final, because they were the only people (on both the German and Nigerian sides) that continued to achieve success more than ten years after the match. We all know that isn't true.
There are a lot of reasons why cadet stars do not achieve success at senior level and they've got nothing to do with age. Some players, who are young and overwhelmed with success, but do not know enough about the football business, sign slave contracts or bad contracts which effectively kill their football careers. Do you remember what almost happened to Christopher Ohenhen at Real Madrid before he escaped? Do you remember what almost happened to Ahmed Garba (Yaro-Yaro) before the NFA took action to block the deal?
There are also some players who become overwhelmed by early success. They think that they have arrived and stop doing what they need to so to continue to succeed.
Some players simply develop too early and burn out early.
2) And that brings me to the other issue. The people that make this argument have a habit of mentioning Nigerian cadet players that were stars at junior level, but didn't achieve success at senior level, without mentioning those that achieved long term success at senior level.
For examples, Jonathan Akpoborire played in the Golden Eaglets team that won the 1985 Under 16 World Cup in China and he was the second highest goal scorer in the 1997/1998 UEFA Cup Winners Cup competition (more than 10 years after the cadet World Cup).
Victor Ikpeba played for Nigeria at the 1989 Under 17 World Cup in Scotland and he was second highest goal scorer in the 1996/1997 UEFA Cup and he also scored lots of important goals in 1997/1998 Champions League (almost ten years after the cadet World Cup).
We all know about the successes of Jay-Jay Okocha (1993 Under 20) and Nwankwo Kanu (1993 Under 17), so I don't need to go into that.
This Twitter thread finds out what happened to members of the England team that won the 2017 Under 17 World Cup.
naptu2: Dear diary, do you remember what I told you a few years ago?
I said that there are some Nigerians that cannot think and instead of thinking, they simply repeat popular sayings from years ago. They see a situation and instead of thinking, they just repeat what they've heard people say years ago. That's the case with the current Golden Eaglets.
I am not referring to the whole age issue. I have dealt with that thoroughly over the past ten years. I am talking about this idea that we never develop players from the Golden Eaglets and that players from the Golden Eaglets never achieve anything with the Super Eagles, they simply fade away after the Under 17 competitions. This is such an obvious lie that you would wonder why people say this, but the answer is simply that they do not think.
Nigeria won the first ever cadet world championships, the 1985 Under 16 World Championships in China and the current coach of the Golden Eaglets, Nduka Ugbade, was the captain of that team. Ugbade went on the play for the Flying Eagles and Super Eagles. He won the 1994 African Nations Cup with the Super Eagles and just missed out on a slot in the 1994 World Cup team. Jonathan Akpoborie, who also played in that 1985 team, was one of the highest goal scorers in the 1998 UEFA Cup Winners Cup and his goals helped Stuttgart to get to the final. He was also in the 1992 and 2000 African Nations Cup squads.
Victor Ikpeba, Nwankwo Kanu, Celestine Babayaro, Wilson Oruma, John Mikel Obi, Ogenyi Onazi, Kenneth Omeruo, Kelechi Iheanacho, Taiwo Awoniyi, Francis Uzoho, Samuel Chukwueze, Victor Osimhen, Kelechi Nwakali, Karibe Ojigwe, Chinedu Obasi Ogbuke, Isaac Promise, Solomon Okoronkwo, James Obiorah and many more have played for the Golden Eaglets and gone on to do great things with the Super Eagles and in European club football, so how can anybody claim that Golden Eaglets players never get promoted to the senior team?
Of course there are players that will do well at cadet level and fail at senior level, but this is the same for every country that takes part in the competition.
What if we lose to Brazil and Italy beat Dominican republic which is quite likely.
Nigeria, Brazil and Italy will all be on 6 points. Is there a best loser in this tourney? NFF should do their homework and ensure the boys dont relax if there is no best loser o.
Look at the table that I posted on the first page and read what's written beside Brazil.
The ridiculous story that players in Nigerian junior teams vanish after the competitions while players from other junior teams flourish is just absolute crock and it is not backed by facts.
Some players from junior teams will flourish after the competition and some will vanish. It's the way it has always been for all teams. It's not peculiar to Nigeria.
It's just one of those stories that Nigerians like to tell and repeat, even though it's not backed by facts.
There are very many Nigerian players that took part in junior competitions and went on to achieve great success at both club level and senior national team level for a long time after those competitions, just as there are many foreign players that achieved great success at cadet level and fizzled out afterwards. These are caused by a variety of factors and it happens everywhere.
Enddy50ty: Since this Buhari’s regime Nigeria 🇳🇬 no dey win anything for sports again. Not even our regular under 17 and 20 tournaments, see boxing Anthony Joshua lost all his titles, see Kamaru Usman lost back to back fights to the same person. Athletics, Blessing Okagbare got banned for almost 10 years, Devine Oduduru banned too.. The local league is in a state of “Ooh My God”.
2023 U-20 W/Cup: Flying Eagles Beat Italy 2-0 To Reach Round Of 16
Nigeria’s Flying Eagles defeated Italy 2-0 in their second Group D game at the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Argentina on Wednesday.
The win means the Flying Eagles progress into the round of 16 with a game to spare.
Second half goals from Salim Fago and Jude Sunday made it back-to-back wins for Ladan Bosso-led side who pipped Dominican Republic 2-2 in their opening game.
They will end their group stage campaign against Brazil on Saturday, May 27.
After a tight first half, the Flying Eagles opened the scoring against Italy thanks to a header by Fago.
In the 95th minute Sunday the made sure of the three points by getting the second goal for the Nigerians.
The team had a scare in the 37th minute after VAR check for possible handball which was eventually waved off.
Meanwhile, Group B’s other game would see Brazil take on Dominican Republic later on Wednesday.
Sports › Re: Nigeria Beat Italy 2-0 (FIFA Under 20 World Cup). by naptu2(op): 3:18pm On May 25, 2023
