April 11, (THEWILL) – The Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) has announced that the national Under-17 boys football team will be heading to Germany for a final training camp to prepare for the upcoming Africa U-17 Cup of Nations.
The Director of Communications at NFF, Ademola Olajire, made the statement on Tuesday, but did not give a specific date for when the team would leave for Europe. The U-17 AFCON is scheduled to begin on April 29 in Algeria and the training camp must be completed before then.
The Golden Eaglets, in 2022, won the WAFU B Under-17 Championship in Ghana, securing their place in the continental finals. In February, the team held a training camp in Abuja, where the technical crew, led by former Eaglets captain, Nduka Ugbade, evaluated more players. The team then took a break for the general elections before resuming camp in Abuja, two weeks ago. They have since played nine friendly matches, winning eight and drawing one, scoring 50 goals and conceding 11.
Ugbade noted that the technical crew is working tirelessly to select the team that will attend the final training camp in Germany and compete in Algeria. The team’s goal is to win AFCON and earn a ticket to the World Cup finals, as they aspire to follow in the footsteps of previous Nigerian teams that have won the World Cup five times in this category.
While acknowledging the challenge, Ugbade is confident in the squad they have built and believes that winning the Africa tournament will be a significant step towards achieving their ultimate objective of a sixth U-17 World Cup for Nigeria.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
