The Head of Nigeria U20 national team, the Flying Eagles, Coach Aliyu Zubairu has exposed the trauma he was exposed to, as he was announced asnthe coach of the current set of the age-grade team, ahead of the recently concluded WAFU B Championship in Lome, Togo.
The team, despite the challenges, emerged victorious, after engaging both Burkina Faso and Cote d’Ivoire in the preliminaries, Niger Republic in the semi-final and Niger, which they defeated 2-1 in the final.
Nigeria lost by lone goal to Burkina Faso in the first match, defeated Cote d’Ivoire 2-1 in the second match, which qualifies the team for the semi-final, where they defeated Niger Republic by 3-1, and triumphed 2-1 over arch rivals Ghana to win the WAFU B trophy, and a ticket to participate in the U20 AFCON in South Africa.
The Technical Adviser of El-Kanemi Warriors of Maiduguri was appointed as Head Coach of the U20 team less than five weeks to the Regional qualifiers for the U20 AFCON Chamipionship.
“I had sympathy for myself when I was announced as the Head Coach of the team, considering that we had just 37 days to the WAFU Championship. I didn’t get carried away with the numerous congratulatory messages I was receiving.
“It wasn’t an easy task bringing together a national team within the time frame, especially as we had just three eligible players from the last class of U20 players, who couldn’t even make the present squad at the end of the day.
“Another fundamental issue was, if you are preparing a team, you need to test run the team with an opposition that is near equal or equal to the team’s you will compete with at any tournament. We don’t have that opportunity.
“We spent two and half weeks in Abuja, requested for camping of the team in Ikenne, where we spent a week. There was no time to play any international friendly match, and that affected the boys in our first match against Burkina Faso. The boys panicked.
“Both Burkina Faso and Cote d’Ivoire had enough period to prepare, and even participated in the Pre-WAFU invitational tournament as far back as July 2023, and the two countries played in the final of the competition, when Nigeria have not even started preparing at all.
