Former Super Eagles defender, Sam Sodje, has praised the Golden Eaglets for winning the WAFU B U-17 tournament in Ghana but was quick to call on the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development to form a partnership scheme with the state’s ministries of sports to aid the development of the country’s football youth system.
Sodje, a Special Assistant on Sports to the Delta State Governor, made this known in a congratulatory message to the victorious Eaglets.
The Eaglets defeated the Young Stallions of Burkina Faso 2-1 in the final at the Cape Coast Stadium in Ghana last Saturday.
“The victory of the Nigerian U-17 football team in the just-concluded tournament in Ghana did not come to me or other Nigerians as a surprise,” Sodje said in a statement made available to The PUNCH.
“We have always exhibited our abilities and talents at the age-grade level of football, not just in Africa but across the football world, as shown in other previous age-grade tournaments that we participated in African and the world.
“Our challenges have always remained in our inability to transit our abundant home-based players from the age-grade level to the senior national team, the Eagles, thus, our continued reliance on overseas-based players.
“We have to as a matter of urgency develop a working template that will allow us to support our home-based youth footballers to make a successful transition into our senior national team.
“In this regard, the Federal Ministry of Youths and Sports Development in conjunction with the different states’ ministries of sports should as a matter of urgency put in place a collaborative and partnership scheme to help in the development of football youth academies across the country so as to enable the country benefit from the available talents at the youth level in the country.”
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