Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has been offered a new strategy that could help in reviving fortunes of the nation’s youth national teams.
The new strategy becomes cogent, after the under-20 team, Flying Eagles failed to go beyond the group stage of this year’s African Games in Accra, Ghana, while the cadet squad, Golden Eaglets could not qualify for the last FIFA U17 World Cup.
In reaction to questions regarding Nigeria’s recent tumbles in international youth football, Broad City FC of Lagos coach, Oluwaseun Ogunmoyero has advocated a situation whereby players for the age-grade national teams are selected from youth football competitions and grassroots clubs.
He cited the recent feat of four Nigerian clubs that attended this year’s Viareggio Youth Cup in Italy, and all of them made it to the quarter-finals.
The vibrant coach added that the array of talents seen in grassroots competitions like Jagaban Cup and Creative League also show that Nigeria would get better results if the best players from such competitions are pooled into the Eaglets and Flying Eagles.
Ogunmoyero added: “It’s actually not in my capacity to speak on why the quality of matches and talent we see in grassroots competitions are not reflecting in the Golden Eaglets and Flying Eagles.
“All I can say is that we have various talents in the world, especially in this country. It was amazing seeing our lads do well at the Viareggio Cup in Italy, with four teams representing Nigeria, and they really performed well.
“The least went out in the quarter-final; to show that all our teams qualified from the group stage. We can do better with the youth national teams if things are done right. It’s all left to the management structure that we have.
“This is the managerial aspect of the game. It’s left for them to be transparent in picking these lads. I feel we could also do better by selecting young players from all these youth competitions at home and abroad – like Viareggio Cup, Jagaban Cup, and TTC League.
“We can even select players from the FA Cup. For instance, my team faced an NPFL side, Sporting Lagos, and we did well against them. If we select the best players from these youth competitions, they will do fantastically well, like it was in the 80s and 90s. That’s how Nigeria will be able to return to our glory days in international youth football.”
 has been offered a new strategy that could help in reviving fortunes of the nation's youth national teams.){kind=link}