The newly appointed coach of the U17 team of Nigeria Manu Garba has picked 51 players for the first phase of camping as the team gears up for next month’s WAFU championship, which is the qualifiers for the U17 Africa Cup of Nations.
Back at the helm for a third spell, the coach said the 51 players were picked from all part of the countries after a rigorous screening exercise which he started one month ago, when he was told he will be in charge of the team.
” I did a small tour and picked some on recommendation. We will access them and pick the best for the country, we don’t have enough time so we won’t be doing open screening”, he told OwnGoalNigeria.com.
When asked why he picked such a huge number , he said the idea is to have at least three very good players in all positions in the event that any of the invited players failed the age detector test popularly called the MRI test.
” From my experience you can’t be too sure with the MRI test, so it’s better to have at least three players in each position. So that whatever happens you will always have options to pick from and build from there”, he stated.
Meanwhile, the 51 players are not the only player he will run the rule on as he is open to fresh recommendation even from players not born in the country, but eligible to represent Nigeria.
” Like I said some of the 51 players here with me came via recommendation. So I am open to that but we have to consider that time is short. Regardless of where you are born or based as long as you are eligible for Nigeria at this level, we will check to see if you are better than what we have before reaching a conclusion . I had a goalkeeper from West Ham (Daniel Jinadu) in my U17 team of 2019. He wasn’t born here”, he concluded.
Ade Emmanuel
