The coach of the winners of the Africa U17 Cup of Nations Salio Dia of Senegal has taken a swipe at the handlers of the U17 team of Nigeria, who were knocked out of the tournament in the quarter final.
Senegal came from behind to beat Morocco 2-1 in yesterday’s final with both teams alongside the two other semi finalist picking a ticket to the U17 World Cup, which will take place in India later this year.
One of the favorites going into the tournament was the U17 team of Nigeria but they crashed out in the quarter final losing 1-2 to Burkina Faso. In the build up to yesterday’s final Dia explained why the Nigerian team led by Nduka Ugbade failed.
He made reference to his time at Aspire Academy and how the Nigerian who came to the academy displayed a particular skill set. He said they are skilful, fast and very talented and berated the coaches of the Nigerian team for not using them correctly.
“When I was a coach at Aspire Academy, we had about 7 to 10 Nigerian players every year. They are skilful, fast and very talented.Nigeria just need to work with their players in the right way, in order to get the right results in the future”, he said while speaking on the possible reasons why Nigeria failed.
Osas Mahawi