Zenith Bank hails Eaglets for picking U-17 World Cup ticket
Nigeria’s U-17 men’s national football team, Golden Eaglets have received accolades from Zenith Bank plc for picking a ticket to the FIFA U-17 World Cup billed to take place later this year in Brazil.
Nigeria defeated Angola 1-0 yesterday in Tanzania to confirm a place in the U-17 finals with six maximum points from two matches. The country earlier defeated host Tanzania 5-4 on Sunday in a highly entertaining encounter.
The bank specifically showered praises on the scorer of the lone goal for Nigeria, Olakunle Olusegun, who incidentally is a product of outfit in the NFF/Zenith Bank Future Eagles project.
It was learnt that shortly after the match yesterday, an official of the bank called the team camp in to congratulate the players and officials of the team.
The ongoing Africa U-17 Africa Cup of Nations has continued to be of huge interest to the chieftains of Zenith Bank plc because of the bank’s investment on youth football in the country.
“Some of the players here are products of Zenith Bank football projects and so we understand why the company is excited at this time. Our key players are from the NFF/Zenith Future Eagles project,” an official of the team said yesterday.
Apart from Olusegun, Akinwunmi Amao, voted as MVP of the nine-goal thriller in the Tanzania/ Nigeria match, is also a product of the Zenith/ NFF partnership.
Nigeria’s last match in the preliminaries of the ongoing competition is against Uganda. A former Nigerian international, Coach Usman Yinka Salihu has said the most talented football players in Nigeria are in the northern part of the country.
The former BCC Lions of Gboko star made the assertion while answering a question on why players of northern extraction hardly feature prominently in the Super Eagles.
Speaking to Daily Trust yesterday, Salihu who played a prominent role in the national U-23 team of his generation said players based in the north are highly talented but are hardly scouted by national team coaches.
In addition, he said the players themselves do not have the right attitude that would take them to the pinnacle of their chosen career.
According to him, most of the players are easily contented with whatever they have achieved and would prefer to play in the north to going elsewhere in search of greener pastures.
He said “In my opinion the main problem with northern players is their attitude. It is a fact that no matter the ability you have, without the right attitude that ability will amount to nothing.
“They like to play without restrictions. Once you try to impose discipline on them, they tend not to perform well. Most are of them are more comfortable playing in the north where they can come to training anytime they want and when it is convenient for them.
“However, there is no doubting the fact that the best talents in Nigerian football are in the north. Sometimes they are discovered and taken out but because their orientation is the same, they hardly flourish,” he said.
Salihu, in addition, called on parents in the north to emulate their counterparts from the south who see football as big business.