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Africa’s youngsters
yesterday began their quest for honours in the African U-17
Championship; Rwanda 2011. The tournament which runs through January
22, 2011 also serves as the continent’s qualifiers for the FIFA Cadet
World Cup and for the umpteenth time, Nigeria is missing in action.

It would recalled
that the Golden Eaglets failed in their bid at qualifying for the event
after being knocked out of the race by the cadet team from the
Democratic Republic of Congo, the tie which they lost 3-1 over two legs.

The country was
also in a similar situation in 2008 as it failed to make it to the
Algiers 2009 edition under coach Alphonsus Dike who after winning the
first leg 2-0 in Port Harcourt surprisingly lost 0-3 to Benin Republic
in the return leg and thus crashed out of the qualifiers only to
qualify for the World Cup by virtue of being host.

For many, the
continuous ouster of the U-17 national team from the African tournament
is unacceptable going by the abundant talents that abound in the
country and the exceptional performances recorded in the past at this
stage both on the continent and in the world. Nigeria and Brazil have
the highest number of FIFA U-17 World Cup titles (3) and the Golden
Eaglets have two African titles to their credit.

Playing by the rules

While accepting the
responsibility for his team’s failure, coach of the Golden Eaglet’s,
Monday Odigie, says he still prides himself for daring to do things
differently by sticking to strictly football players who were under 17
years of age.

“Tournaments like
the U-17 is a developmental programme in which talents are to be
discovered and nurtured, it shouldn’t be all about winning. That, I
believe, is the only way we can find capable replacements for our aging
players. My ambition was to qualify the team but as it turned out, we
were not able to make it at the long run,” he said.

He continued: “For
the very first time, we had a team of players majorly drawn from
secondary schools and academies across the country and there was no
single player playing in the league as it used to be the case before. I
would have been happy to see them showcase their talents at the Africa
Championships like their other mates.” he said

Looking ahead

Already, Odigie
revealed that he has submitted his new set of programmes to the Nigeria
Football Federation and only expecting their go-ahead to begin
preparations in earnest for future engagements.

“I am always an
advocate of early preparations and that I believe is the key to
succeeding. We have seen and learnt from the mistakes of the past and
we would want to guide against that in our future endeavours,” he said.

Despite the earlier
setback, Odigie maintained that he would stick to playing by the rules;
which is to use only players still within the specified age-limit.

“If you know me
well, you would see me at different locations where youth tournaments
are been played like the Principals’ Cup, Shell Cup etc, those are
examples of tournaments where one can get genuinely young talents and
that is what we will be doing not just going for old players all in the
name of getting results,” Odigie reiterated.

Previously touted
to assist Super Eagles coach Samson Siasia, Odigie says he has been
using his time to better his knowledge of the game with refresher
courses here and there.

Defending the crown

Meanwhile, as the
ninth edition of the CAF U-17 Championship finally kicked off in Rwanda
yesterday, Lamin Sambou, Gambian U-17 coach, says he has no doubt his
team will retain the African crown. The Baby Scorpions are the
defending champions of the biennial cadet championship, and following
an initial triumph on home soil in 2005, Sambou says his charges are
ready for the challenge backed by a 10-day training camp in Egypt.

For the Baby
Scorpions trainer, the preparations in Egypt has placed them in a good
stead to complete a hat-trick of triumphs, making them the first-ever
country to achieve that feat.

“This is a strong
team in all departments. I have been working with these boys day and
night and I know what they are each capable of giving for their
country,” Sambou was quoted by West Coast Radio, a local radio station.

“We have great confidence in our team and our chances in Rwanda,” he added.

The Gambians will
begin their defence against Congo today; play Mali 72-hours later
before engaging Cote d’Ivoire on January 15 for a place at the next
round.

Knowing very well
that a place at the last four automatically earns them a spot at the
FIFA U-17 World Cup slated for Mexico later in the year, Sambou assured
that his charges will go all out to realize that dream.

“We will certainly qualify,” he declared in a confident tone. In the other match for today, Cote d’Ivoire will take on Mali