Office of the Grassroots Sports Development in the Office of the Lagos State Governor, has commended the heroic performance of the Golden Eaglets which resulted in Nigeria winning the FIFA U-17 World Cup for a record fourth time last week.
Prince Wale Oladunjoye, Senior Special Assistant, SSA on Grassroots Sports Development to Governor Raji Fashola, SAN said the exploits of Coach Manu Garba and his team at the UAE 2013 should be commended.
“The Golden Eaglets have done the country and indeed African continent proud, by winning the U-17 World Cup. It was a deserved feat for a team of young and promising talents, who have great future ahead of them.
“That a crop of young players could be tapped from the grassroots and played themselves to the world limelight showed that more efforts should be channeled into grassroots sports development, as this is the future of Nigerian sports,” said Prince Oladunjoye, whose Office pioneered the Governor’s Cup Lagos Tennis Championship, Lagos Tertiary Games and the Adopt-A-Talent Sports Programme, where athletes are groomed with education to become complete and self sustained stars in the future.
The SSA also congratulated the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, for giving the Eaglets a conducive environment to succeed, adding that the team should be kept together to form the nucleus of Nigerian team that would be used to prosecute the 2018/22 FIFA World Cups.
“We can only reap the dividends of these young lads if they are kept together for the next eight years, as I see them becoming world champions at the senior level in 2018/22 FIFA World Cups,” he said.