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| Nigerian Golden Eaglets Conquer the World |
10/17/2007 |
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Nigeria stamped its authority in global youth soccer, once again, by clinching the highly sought after FIFA under- 17 World Cup.
With the indomitable Golden Eaglets of Nigeria taking home the coveted 2007 FIFA Youth trophy, the most populous black continent in the world now have the honour of winning the competition thrice times and placing itself shoulder-to-shoulder with Brazil’s world record as three-time winner. But, in addition, this is the fifth time that Nigeria has reached the final of the FIFA Under – 17 World Cup
The young footballers won the much sort after trophy in a very pulsating and highly entertaining final against a formidable Spanish team in the world tournament in September in South Korea. The match lived up to it’s billings by the media. The Eaglets won the match 3 - 0 in a penalty shot out after the match ended 0 – 0 in extra time.
While the whole Golden Eaglets were very incredible throughout the entire tournament, the hero of the final was the goalkeeper, Oladele Ajiboye, who blocked two Spanish spot kicks. The Spaniards were very unlucky right from the on set of the penalties. Their first player to take the spot kick, Asier Illarremendi, missed the target entirely, which no one could have predicted, at that juncture, as the beginning of the worst to come. Then the Eaglet, Mathew Edile, stepped forward and coolly scored for Nigeria. The tension that gripped the atmosphere there was immensely high after the Nigerian goalkeeper, Dele Ajiboye, blocked the second Spanish penalty from Fran Merida, and matter was made worse when Daniel Joshua, scored the second spot kick.
Then the party was all over when Iago’s penalty was also stopped by Ajiboye. To put it beyond any reasonable doubt, Ganiyu Oseni, scored the Golden Eaglets’ third penalty against the sad Spanish goalkeeper, David de Gea.
That the Nigerians were the eventual champions of the world, was not a surprise to some football pundits, who predicted at the beginning of the tournament, from their observations, that either Brazil, Nigeria or Spain were going to win the championship.
Even the Nigeria coach, Yemi Tella, on their arrival to Seoul, confidently told the press, ‘’We ‘ll take the trophy back to Nigeria,’’ which turned out to be true. But at the time of his statement, those who had not seen his boys play, wondered what gave him the effrontery to such a bold claim..
It is very pertinent to observe here, that the Asia continent, has been very good to Nigeria, infact it may be termed their good luck, because all the three times that they won the trophy, were in the far East Asia. The continent has hosted the tournament three times, and on each occasion Nigeria went home with the cup. The first time they won the cup, was in 1985 in China. The second time was in 1993 in Japan and now South Korea. The tournament was well organised, there was no grumbling from any quarter about anything being inadequate. Much respect and kudos to FIFA organising committee, chaired by Jack Werner, and the South Korean government and their FA.
As was the custom of such tournaments, we all got a glimmes of the next generation of world football stars. There were many of them, but there are those whose names must be mentioned here. They includes the Nigerian Adidas Golden Boot winner and clinical finisher, Macaulay Chrisantus, whose seven goals and two assists helped Nigeria to win the cup. His performance throughout the soccer extravaganza, was without any doubt one of the best, that we have seen in the recent times. He also won the silver of the Adidas Golden Ball, behind the German captain, Toni Kroos.
Smiling with his gold medal on his neck, his golden boots hanging on his left shoulder and his silver ball on his right hand, Chrisantus, said to FIFA.Com, ‘’ I’m very proud of my team and myself, for reaching the goals we set before coming to Korea. Winning the World Cup and the Golden Shoe was a dream come true.’’
The very euphoric Eaglet plays his club football with FC Abuja, but would like to play for Arsenal, the former club of his role model, Thierry Henry.
According to Macauley Chrisantus’agent Adam Mohammed, his young charge is already a very hot cake that all the top teams in Europe want to sign. He said that already 12 teams are seriously interested in the Golden Boot winner. “ We have received at least 12 very serious offers from some of the top clubs in Europe like Chelsea, Real Madrid, Arsenal, Liverpool, Ajax, Marseille and Hamburg for Chrisantus,” he told BBC Sports. He added, that they are now busy trying to select the club that will be good for his football development.
Next is the German captain, Toni Kroos, who was outstanding throughout the tournament. His five goals and four assists, helped his country to claim the Bronze, after beating Ghana 2 – 1 in the third place match. As I already mentioned he not only won the Golden Ball, but he also won the bronze shoe. The FC Bayern starlet was a talented footballer. Another star player was Ghana’s Ransford Osei, who won Adidas silver shoe behind Chrisantus. He scored six goals and recorded three assists which helped Ghana to reach semi-final before Spanish defeat of 2 – 1. The Spanish and FC Barcelona wonder kid, Bojan showed why the media was raving about him.
He was a beauty in motion with the round leather, too bad he did not play in the final, because of the second yellow card, he picked up in the semi-final against Ghana. He scored five goals and one assist and won Adidas Bronze Ball.
Others whose performance I must not forget includes the energetic Nigerian captain, Lukman Haruna, his heroic goalkeeper, Oladele Ajiboye and King Osanga. The Brazilian trios of Lulinho, Alex and Tales showed their talents. So did the Ghanaian striker Sadick Adams. He is also a future star. There were many future world class footballers in the tournament whom for lack of space, I cannot mention here. It was a great tournament and we wish all the participants a bright future. The Voice Magazine extends her congratulations to the World champions – the Golden Eaglets of Nigeria, and salute all the African representatives in the event. Cheers.
By Melvin A.V. Brown
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