Friday 16 October 2015

Ten interesting facts about Nigeria at the FIFA U-17 Championships



All eyes will be on the Golden Eaglets of Nigeria who begin the quest to retaining their title at the FIFA U-17 World Cup in Chile which will take place from October 17 to November 8.

Drawn against tournament host Chile, Croatia and USA in group A, the team will hope to better the performances of their predecessors at this competition.

Coach Emmanuel Amunike is optimistic of his team's chances as he believes his wards will surely retain the title they won two years ago.

"We are here to defend the trophy," Amuneke said after the team arrived Chile on Wednesday.

"We are here with new players who want to write their own history and we are looking forward to our first game against the United States of America," he added.

With the country boosting an unbelievable record at the cadre level, we take a look at some mind-blowing
stats and facts from Nigeria's participation at this competition over the years.


1. Nigeria is the most successful country in the tournament's history with four titles (1985, 1993, 2007, 2013) and three runners up (1987, 2001, 2009).

Followed by Brazil and Ghana with three and two titles respectively.

2. The Golden Ball award for the most valuable player at a particular tournament has been won thrice by Nigerians -  the highest by any nation.  Phillip Osundu in 1987, Sani Emmanuel in 2009, and Kelechi Iheanacho in 2013.

3. Wison Oruma at Japan 1993 and Macauley Chrisantus at Korea 2007 are the only two Nigerians to have won the Golden shoe award for most goals scored in a single tournament.

4. The country has failed to qualify for this competition only once in Italy 1991 and once failed to progress pass the group stage in Finland 2003 after the Eaglets were eliminated by drawing of lot - they were tied with Costa Rica on both points and goals.  

5. Dele Alampasu, Eaglets' goalkeeper to the 2013 edition of the competition is the first and only Nigerian to have won the Golden Glove award for the most outstanding keeper in a particular edition.

6. Despite winning the titles on four occasions, Nigeria has never successfully defended her title on each occasion.

7.1708 goals has been scored in the history of the tournament with Nigeria's Chidera Ezeh scoring 1700th goal in 2013.

8. Nigeria has successfully hosted this competition once in 2009 but couldn't capitalize on home support to win the title - they lost 1-0 to Switzerland in the finals. While Mexico is the first and only team to have hosted and won on home soil in 2011.

9. Nigeria holds the record for most goals scored by a team in a single tournament with 26 goals in the 2013 tournament hosted by United Arab Emirates. They are closely followed by Germany with a total of 24 goals in the 2011 edition hosted by Mexico.

10. With an average age of 16 years and 11 months, the current crop of Eaglets is the youngest in the history of the country's participation at the biennial event.

Nigeria play USA on Saturday in Santiago.

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