Obiekwu Demands Developmental Plans for Eaglets

NEWSGIST, Former Nigeria defender, Kingsley Obiekwu, is delighted with the performance of the Golden Eaglets at the  FIFA U-17 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates.

However, Obiekwu called for a programme that will help improve the players to enable them to graduate to the Super Eagles.

The   three-time champions of the competition play Uruguay in a quarterfinal clash on Saturday and the Atlanta ’96 Olympic Games gold medallist is impressed with the Nigerian youngsters.

Obiekwu said, “This is Nigeria’s youngest ever U-17 national team. The coach (Manu Garba)   has done well to pick the right players. Of course am impressed with the team; they’ve given a good account of themselves. In a competition  like this, the most important matches are the first two. Even in the game they drew, they still dominated, so the coaching  crew are doing a very good job.

“What we need is continuity. It will be good for the country if we keep these boys together for the U-20 team. But after the tournament, the team will be scattered; you won’t even know where some of the boys are.

“We can have a programme through which we monitor these boys even after the tournament, so that they can progress to the Flying Eagles, the  U-23  team and the Super  Eagles.

It will help us build a solid foundation for our future teams.”

The former Enugu Rangers centre-back, however, predicted a tough tie against Uruguay.

 The ex-Eagles player  said, “It’s going to be a very tough game. Having watched them play, Uruguay are one of the toughest teams in the competition. They have given us problems in the past. It’s not going to be an easy match but I tip Nigeria for victory.”

On the calls for  the Eaglets  to play from the flanks,  Obiekwu insisted Manu should have the final say