Nigeria’s U17 national team coach, Nduka Ugbade has disclosed that the Golden Eaglets will soon open their training camp in Abuja ahead of the CAF U-17 Africa Cup of Nations in Algeria.
According to The Sun, the captain of the cadet U-16 Golden Eaglets that won the inaugural edition of the youth tournament hosted by China in 1985 spoke with Brila FM, Lagos on the challenges facing the team.
“The U-20 team have started their training camp because theirs (CAF U-20 AFCON) is coming first. Ours (U-17) is in April,” Ugbade said during the interview in Lagos.
“We are starting camping soon. The only problem is that when there are no funds, things slow down but in a week or two (weeks), things will fall in place,” Ugbade added.
The Eaglets who are hoping to qualify for the FIFA U17 World Cup are five-time champions of the world.
The semifinalists in the Africa Cup of Nations for the U17s will represent Africa at the tournament.
Four nations will also qualify for the U-20 World Cup. Nigeria’s U-17 and U-20 sides won the West African Football Union B (WAFU B) tournaments to qualify for the continental tournaments.
The FIFA U-17 World Cup returns after four years due to the COVID-19 pandemic forced FIFA to cancel the tournament in 2021.
The 2023 FIFA U-17 World Cup will be the 19th edition of the FIFA U-17 World Cup, the biennial international men’s youth football championship contested by the under-17 national teams of the member associations of FIFA. It will be held in Peru from 10 November to 2 December 2023.
Brazil are the defending champions, having won in 2019.