The Nigeria national U-17 football team, known as the Golden Eaglets, is the youngest team that represents

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

. The team is the most successful in international football for their age group, winning a record five

FIFA U-17 World Cup The FIFA U-17 World Cup, founded as the FIFA U-16 World Championship, later changed to U-17 in 1991 and to its current name in 2007, is the annual world championship of association football for male players under the age of 17 organized by ''Fé ...

titles and have been runners-up on three occasions. They are also two-time

Africa U-17 Cup of Nations The U-17 Africa Cup of Nations, known as the TotalEnergies U-17 Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship purposes, is a biennial youth association football competition organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) for its nations consist ...

champions with their most recent title at the

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

edition.

History

The team won the maiden edition of

in 1985 hosted by China, as well as the 1993, 2007, 2013, and 2015 editions (becoming only the second team since Brazil to win it back to back); making them the first team ever to win the junior world cup five times. They also won the

African Under-17 Championship The U-17 Africa Cup of Nations, known as the TotalEnergies U-17 Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship purposes, is a biennial youth association football competition organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) for its nations consist ...

in 2001 and 2007, and were runners-up in 1995 and 2013. After the 2007 World Cup victory there was some discussion as to whether the success should be rewarded in the form of cash, or if longer-term investments were more suitable for teenage players. It was pointed out that some previous players had found themselves reduced to poverty due to injury or mismanagement of their funds. Heading into the

2009 FIFA U-17 World Cup The 2009 FIFA U-17 World Cup was the thirteenth tournament of the FIFA U-17 World Cup held in Nigeria from 24 October to 15 November 2009. Switzerland national under-17 football team, Switzerland won the tournament, beating the host team and holde ...

, head coach

Henry Nwosu Henry Onyemanze Nwosu (born 14 June 1963) is a Nigerian football manager and former player. Club career Nwosu spent his career at home with New Nigeria Bank (NNB) of Benin City and African Continental Bank (ACB) of Lagos. He also played for ...

was replaced by

John Obuh John Sam Obuh is a Nigerian football coach. He was most recently the coach of Akwa United F.C. He was in charge of Nigeria's under-17 national team during the 2009 FIFA U-17 World Cup after leaving Kwara United due to a contract dispute. On 2 ...

, coach of

Kwara United Kwara United Football Club is a Nigerian football club based in Ilorin. They play in the top division in Nigerian football, the Nigeria Professional football League having gained promotion in 2017 from the Nigeria National League. Their home s ...

. Although Nigeria failed to qualify for the

2011 FIFA U-17 World Cup The 2011 FIFA U-17 World Cup was the 14th edition of the FIFA U-17 World Cup, the biennial international men's youth association football, football championship contested by the under-17 national teams of the member associations of FIFA. It was h ...

, they participated again in the

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

edition of the tournament. Planning was thrown into disarray however in August when key members of the team was determined by

MRI scan Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a medical imaging technique used in radiology to generate pictures of the anatomy and the physiological processes inside the body. MRI scanners use strong magnetic fields, magnetic field gradients, and ra ...

ning to be overage and excluded from the team. In their first match, the team defeated the defending champions

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

with a 6–1 score. They only failed to defeat

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

in the group stage, but they did so in the semi-finals. In the final match they defeated Mexico for a second time, obtaining their fourth U-17 World Cup and becoming the national team to win the most U-17 tournaments as at 2023. The team were again the subject of age-cheating accusations when, a total of 26 players from the 60-strong squad were sent home from their training camp in 2016 after failing compulsory MRI scans used to determine age ahead of an African Cup of Nations qualifier. Amidst all the age cheating accusations, the team has never been found guilty of fielding overage players in any competition. All the players accused of being overage were caught at the

Abuja Abuja (; , ) is the capital city of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, strategically situated at the geographic midpoint of the country within the Federal Capital Territory (Nigeria), Federal Capital Territory (FCT). As the seat of the Federal G ...

training camp and sent home before they played any game for the team.

Competitive record

FIFA U-17 World Cup record

U-17 Africa Cup of Nations record

A gold background colour indicates that Nigeria won the tournament. ''*Draws include knockout matches decided on

penalty kicks A penalty shot or penalty kick is a play used in several sports whereby a goal is attempted during untimed play. Depending on the sport, when a player commits certain types of penalties, the opposition is awarded a penalty shot or kick attempt. T ...

.''

Team honours and achievements

Intercontinental *

**Winners:

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a n ...

1993 The United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1993 as: * International Year for the World's Indigenous People The year 1993 in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands had only 364 days, since its ...

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

**Runners-up:

1987 Events January * January 1 – Bolivia reintroduces the Boliviano currency. * January 2 – Chadian–Libyan conflict – Battle of Fada: The Military of Chad, Chadian army destroys a Libyan armoured brigade. * January 3 – Afghan leader ...

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

Continental *

**Winners:

**Runners-up:

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

**Third-place:

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

Others *

UEFA–CAF Meridian Cup The UEFA–CAF Meridian Cup was a football tournament that featured national teams from Europe and Africa among players under 18, and was part of the co-operation programme between UEFA and the CAF. Meridian Project The UEFA–CAF Meridian Cup ...

**Winners:

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

Staff

Management

* Team Coordinator: Suleiman Abubakar * Secretary: Egbaiyelo Tayo * Media Coordinator: Morakinyo Abodunrin

Sports

* Head coach: Nduka Ugbade * Assistant coach: * Assistant coach: * Scout: * Goalkeeper coach:

Medical

* Doctor: Olarinoye Ayodeji * Physiotherapist: Oyegunna Gabriel * Equipment Manager: Mohammed Kafa Usman

Current squad

The following players were named in the squad for the

2023 U-17 Africa Cup of Nations The 2023 U-17 Africa Cup of Nations known as the TotalEnergies U-17 Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship purposes or 2023 U17 AFCON for short was the 14th edition (19th if editions without hosts are included) of the biennial African youth footb ...

between 29 April – 19 May. ''Caps and goals are correct as of 1 May 2023, after the match against

Mali Mali, officially the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is the List of African countries by area, eighth-largest country in Africa, with an area of over . The country is bordered to the north by Algeria, to the east b ...

.''

Notable former players

References

External links

Official website of the Nigerian Football Federation
Under-17 African national under-17 association football teams Youth sport in Nigeria Men's national sports teams of Nigeria

Head-to-head record

The following table shows Nigeria's head-to-head record in the

. {, class="wikitable sortable collapsible collapsed" style="text-align: center;" , - !Opponent ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !Win % , - , align="left", , - , align="left", , - , align="left", , - , align="left", , - , align="left", , - , align="left", , - , align="left", , - , align="left", , - , align="left", , - , align="left", , - , align="left", , - , align="left", , - , align="left", , - , align="left", , - , align="left", , - , align="left", , - , align="left", , - , align="left", , - , align="left", , - , align="left", , - , align="left", , - , align="left", , - , align="left", , - , align="left", , - , align="left", , - , align="left", , - , align="left", , - , align="left", , - , align="left", , - , align="left", , - , align="left", , - , align="left", , - , align="left", , - , align="left", , - , align="left", , - , align="left", , - , align="left", , - , align="left", , -class="sortbottom" !Total {{WDLtot, 67, 48, 11, 8, for=158, against=52, diff=yes

History

Competitive record

FIFA U-17 World Cup record

U-17 Africa Cup of Nations record

Team honours and achievements

Staff

Management

Sports

Medical

Current squad

Notable former players

See also

References

External links

Head-to-head record