<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Almost all the impact players for the Golden\nEaglets in Saturday night\u2019s 4-2 defeat of Hungary in the opening match of the\n2019 FIFA U17 World Cup finals in Brazil are products of the annual NFF\/Zenith\nBank Future Eagles Championships, including the goal-scorers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The competition, sponsored by NFF\u2019s partner,\nZenith International Bank PLC, was launched in the year 2016 and has been\nwidely lauded for its vision, with both U13 and U15 competitions running\nside-by-side and right from the states to the zones and then to the national\nfinals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Samson Tijani, captain of the team and\nplaymaker, who netted two goals (Nigeria\u2019s first and last goals), and was named\nMan Of The Match, is a product of the competition, as well as defender Usman\nIbrahim, whose powerful header off a corner kick restored parity after several\nattempts by Nigeria had been foiled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Right back Oluwatimilehin Adeniyi, whose\npowerful header off a cross by another substitute Ibraheem Jabaar put Nigeria\nahead for the first time in the game (3-2), also emerged from the NFF\/Zenith\nBank competition. He was severely injured before the Africa U17 Cup of Nations\nin Tanzania in April, and could not make the trip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also of note is Akinkunmi Ayobami Amoo, whose\nentry into the game in the second half brought more vigour into the Nigerian\nattack. Amoo is a product of the NFF\/Zenith Bank Future Eagles Championship,\nalongside forward Olakunle Olusegun, who also fought like a Trojan<\/em> in Saturday\u2019s encounter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another player who is a product of the Future\nEagles Championship and is with the Eaglets in Brazil is Divine Nwachukwu, but\nhe did not taste action against the Hungarians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The NFF\/Zenith Bank Future Eagles Championship\nalso supplies the players to the U15 National Boys\u2019 team, which finished as\nrunner-up at a tournament in Japan few months ago. In fact, Usman Ibrahim, who netted\nthe equalizer against Hungary before further goals by Adeniyi and Tijani, was in\nthe squad that went to Japan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nigeria, five \u2013time champions of the FIFA U17\nWorld Cup, take on Ecuador, host of the 1995 edition, in their next match of\nthe tournament on Thursday, also at the Estadio Olimpico in Goiania where they\nput Hungary to the sword.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their final match of Group B, against\nAustralia, will take them to Brasilia, on Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Almost all the impact players for the Golden Eaglets in Saturday night\u2019s 4-2 defeat of Hungary in the opening match of the 2019 FIFA U17 World Cup finals in Brazil are products of the annual NFF\/Zenith Bank Future Eagles Championships, including the goal-scorers. The competition, sponsored by NFF\u2019s partner, Zenith International Bank PLC, was launched […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":107,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onwardnews24.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onwardnews24.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onwardnews24.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onwardnews24.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onwardnews24.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.onwardnews24.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":108,"href":"https:\/\/www.onwardnews24.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106\/revisions\/108"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onwardnews24.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onwardnews24.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onwardnews24.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onwardnews24.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}