Defending Champions of the FIFA U-17 World Cup, the Golden Eaglets of Nigeria landed in Chile yesterday with FIFA officials hailing Nigeria for their records in the youth World Cup.
The Emmanuel Amuneke-tutored record-seekers (Nigeria) have won the U-17 World Cup a record four times.
Nigeria’s intimidating record in the tournament include:
- Winners – Four time at the debut in 1985, 1993, 2007 and in the last edition in the UAE in 2013
- First Runner-Up – Three time in 1987, 2001 and 2009
- Highest points per game (three points for a win, one for a draw) in the history of the competition of 2.34 ahead of Ghana and Brazil with 2.12 and 2.04 respectively
- Total goals scored – 126 in just 10 tournaments
- Highest wins of 41 games out of 56 total games played
- Golden Ball for Most Valuable Player of the Tournament won record 3 times by Philip Osondu in 1987, Sani Emmanuel in 2009 and Kelechi Iheanacho in 2013.
- Golden Shoe for Highest Goal Scorer in the Tournament won twice behind Mexico’s three time record in 1993 (Wilson Oruma) and 2007 (Macaulay Christanus)
- Fifa Fair Play Award won a record four times in 1993, 2001, 2009 and 2013.
16 years, 11 months and ten days will be the average age of the Nigeria squad when the tournament kicks off on Saturday 17 October, the youngest at Chile 2015. Emanuel Amuneke will be hoping his young charges continue the good progress made by Manu Garba’s champions from 2013, with 12 out of the 21 in their UAE 2013 squad featuring at the FIFA U-20 World Cup earlier this year in New Zealand.
1708 goals have been scored in the history of the tournament, with Chidera Ezeh of Nigeria notching the 1700th strike in the UAE 2013 semi-final, 10,324 days after Brazilian Bismarck scored the very first goal of China PR 1985.
The landmark achievements and statistics were not all about Nigeria.
11 players have gone on to win the World Cup after featuring at the U-17 edition, with Toni Kroos (who appeared at Korea Republic 2007) and Mario Gotze (Nigeria 2009) joining the list after their victory in Brazil last year. The nine other world champions are Frenchman Emmanuel Petit, Brazil’s Ronaldinho, Italy’s Gianluigi Buffon, Alessandro Del Piero and Francesco Totti and Spain’s Iker Casillas, Cesc Fabregas, Andres Iniesta and Xavi.
South Africa, will be making their debut at a U-17 World Cup in Chile. Syria and Belgium return for their second appearance after both debuting at Korea Republic 2007, while USA and Brazil make a record-continuing 15th appearance at the global U-17 finals.
2000 is the year in which Mali’s Mamady Diarra, who plays for Yeelen in his home country, was born, making him the first player to be named in a squad for a men’s World Cup tournament (U-17, U-20 or senior), who was born after the turn of the millennium.
172 goals were scored in the previous tournament, UAE 2013, a record high for the U-17 World Cup. That record was achieved in 52 games, meaning an average of 3.31 goals per game, bettered only by Japan 1993 (3.34), Peru 2005 (3.47) as well as the record goals per game scored at Egypt 1997 and Finland 2003 (3.66).
55 centimetres is the difference in height between the shortest and tallest player at Chile 2015. Guinea midfielder Karim Conte stands 140cm tall, with New Zealand defender Hunter Ashworth towering above him at 195cm. Only 12 players at last year’s senior World Cup stood taller than the Kiwi.
POSITIVE NIGERIA 