Golden Eaglets get new captain

September 2, 2015 Babatunde Ojetola

Nigerian U17 boys’ team, the Golden Eaglets will be led by striker Victor Osimhen at the Korea invitational tournament in the absence of skipper Kelechi Nwakali, the Nigeria Football Federation have confirmed.

Eaglets’ leader Nwakali is being expected in Suwon after he was held back in Nigeria due to visa hitch along with Team Coordinator, Prince Udofia but Osimhen would undoubtedly be a worthy replacement.

Incidentally, Osimhen is presently the team’s top scorer with some 30 goals in both friendly and international matches. Osimhen actually enjoyed the responsibility of captaining the Golden Eaglets a fortnight ago when the coach Emmanuel Amuneke-led side beat Katsina State’s U-17 Selected Team 2-0 at the Karkanda Stadium where he scored the opening goal before Funso Bamgboye added the other.

Coach Emmanuel Amuneke said it was about time his star striker assumed more responsibility: “We know what Victor can do and it would also be interesting to see how he can rally his colleagues in big game such as the one we are going to play against Korea on Wednesday.”

The Golden Eaglets on Tuesday morning trained at one of the practice pitches of the Gyeonggi 2002 World Cup Stadium and in the evening at the Suwon World Cup Stadium where Wednesday’s match against Korea would be played. The match is fixed for 8:00 pm local time (12:00 noon Nigerian time).

All the 17 players took part in the two training sessions and with all of them roaring to go against Korea. Organizers said the tournament would strictly follow FIFA’s stipulated regulations with all matches to be decided in 90 minutes regulation time without extra time. The team with the most points after three round-robin matches would emerge champions. The tournament takes place September 2-6.

– News24