By Ebube Dike

Nigeria’s national male U-17 team, the Golden Eaglets Sunday arrived Togo for the 2021 West Africa Football Union, WAFU Zone Tournament which starts on Tuesday.

The five-time world champions and three-time world champions Ghana headline the seven-team West African Football Union (WAFU B) U-17 Tournament taking place in Lome, Togo 5th – 20th January 2021.

Nigeria’s U-17 Boys, Golden Eaglets will flew into Lome on Sunday morning from Lagos, with a squad of 25 players who are expected to pick the ticket from the WAFU tournament to represent the region in this year’s CAF U-17 Cup of Nations taking place in Morocco.

Pedigree, pride and career aspiration aside, the Eaglets are sure to derive some kind of vicarious motivation from the below-par outing of the Nigeria U-20 Boys at the WAFU B U-20 Tournament in Benin Republic last month.

Nigeria conquered the world in 1985, 1993, 2007, 2013 and 2015, and alongside Ghana have dominated cadet football on the African continent, with Mali, Cote d’Ivoire and Senegal to be reckoned with as well on the basis of investment and focus on youth development.

The Eaglets’ first encounter in Lome will be against the Ivorians, at the Stade Municipal on Wednesday from 4pm, and should serve as a pointer to how much the Eaglets are keen to conquer Africa again.

On Saturday at the same venue, they clash with Ghana’s Black Starlets in a potentially explosive encounter between two teams with eight world titles between them

Hosts Togo will open the two-week tournament against Niger Republic at the Stade Kegue on Tuesday, hours before Group A’s other teams Benin Republic and Burkina Faso clash at the same venue. Nigeria, Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire make up the three-team Group B.

25 EAGLETS FOR WAFU TOURNEY

Goalkeepers: Destiny Emuwahen; Abdulbasit Abbas: Saheed Jimoh

Defenders: Victor Udoh; Joseph Kuteyi; Chukwuemeka Egbu; Philip Titiloye; Oludapo Akintola; Emmanuel John

Midfielders: Benjamin Mustapha; Oluwatomiwa Kolawole; Rabiu Ahmed; Samuel Akere; Vince Osuji; Haruna Hassan

Wingers/Forwards: Michael Emmanuel; Gideon Atoyebi; Samson Ogunmola; Christian Nwachukwu; Peter Asuquo; Basheet Hamzat; Ahmed Abdullahi; Abdullahi Bewene; Joseph Arumala, Stanley Iheanacho