Former Nigeria Under-17 boys national team scouting coach and the present assistant coach of Nigeria U-15 boys team, Bunmi Haruna, has hailed the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and coaches of the Golden Eaglets for the good job they are putting into getting the right kind of players within the right age cadre for the Nigeria U-17 national team.
Haruna stated this after his Abuja-based club side, Dante Academy, became the first team to score two goals against the present Eaglets, as both teams played out an entertaining 4-2 score in a friendly match played on Friday at the FIFA Goal Project, Package B of the MKO Abiola National Stadium, Abuja.
Haruna, also known as the Sports Prime Minister, dispelled fears that the Golden Eaglets have a depleted team after the NFF asked players at MRI borderline to excuse the camp ahead of the WAFU-B qualifiers which will take place in Lome, Togo next January.
“It’s normal, I remember during our time, we learnt Ghana had about 100 players and only got about 30 after the MRI, so they (Golden Eaglets) had about 60 and got about 30, so its still good, and they are lucky to still have a very good team here.”
“It is good for Nigeria that we have young boys and it is a standard that FIFA has set, so kudos to the Nigeria Football Federation.”
On the result of the match which ended 4-2 in favour of the Golden Eaglets, who conceded two late goals, after going four goals ahead over Dante Academy, Coach Bunmi said, “You must give kudos to the national team, very young boys and they did a good job, its a fine team”.
“Its not about my team, it is about the national team. We’ve come here to help them, you can see the boys I selected, they are big and physical, these are the kind of boys they (Golden Eaglets) would play at the Nations Cup.”
“So if they (the Eaglets) can play like they did with these boys, its good. I have been to the qualifiers before, the Nations Cup and World Cup so I known what to expect.”
“I’ll also advise that if they are not going to play on astro turf in Togo, they need to start training on grass. Because I noticed my players couldn’t not move much on astro turf because they have been playing on grass.”
