As predicted, Coach Ladan Bosso has again led the National U-20 team, the Flying Eagles, to another disastrous outing, losing 2-3 to Senegal in their last group match to exit the ongoing 13th African Games in Ghana.
The failure on Friday night in Ghana has sparked anger across the land, with a majority of football fans putting the blame on the doorstep of both the President of Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Ibrahim Gusau, and Secretary General, Mohammed Sanusi, for allegedly imposing Ladan Bosso on the Flying Eagles against the wish of many Nigerians.
Against all expectations, the Flying Eagles, who used to be the pride of Nigeria and Africa at the world level, were reduced to baby chickens at the African Games, losing two matches at the group stage, to Uganda and Senegal.
It was the same seniaro in Cotonou, Benin Republic a few years ago, where the Bosso-led Flying Eagles put all foots wrong to finish with just one point from three games in the group stages, following a 1-1 with Cote d’Ivoire and 0-1 defeat by Ghana during the U-20 WAFU Cup. Then, in Cotonou, the team failed to qualify for the Africa and FIFA U-20 World Cup, a failure, which stopped the Flying Eagles from participating in the 2021 U-20 Africa Cup of Nations, which was the final qualifier for the FIFA U-20 World Cup.
After that competition, the NFF apologised to Nigerians for embarrassing the nation with a promise to strengthen the team’s technical crew ahead of future challenges.
Before then, the same Ladan Bosso had failed with the Flying Eagles at the FIFA U-20 World Youth Championship in Canada, where Nigeria lost to Chile in the quarterfinal stage. That was in 2007.
Rather than drop Bosso, who seems to have lost torch in coaching modern football, the NFF gave him a pat on the back and allowed him to continue on the job for two more years. He was later dismissed when he led the Flying Eagles to finish third at the African Youth Championship in Rwanda in 2009.
It took public complaints over his team’s lacklustre display before the NFF reluctantly dropped Bosso.
However, the NFF brought Bosso back as Head Coach of the Flying Eagles, forcing many Nigerians to describe the football house as a body that encourages failure.
On Friday night, in Ghana, the Flying Eagles got off to a bright start after Charles Agada, who started the game against South Sudan from the bench, scored the opener as early as the second minute for Nigeria.
But the lead only lasted for 20 minutes before Idrissa Gueye drew level for the Young Lions of Teranga. The winger also put Senegal ahead in the 28th minute, as the first half finished 2-1 in favour of the Senegalese team.
Nigeria responded immediately after the restart with Chibueze Izuogu restoring parity im the 50th minute. The Young Lions of Teranga reclaimed the lead in the 65th minute to break the heart of Nigerians. Despite the Senegalese getting reduced to 10 men very late on in the match, they were able to hold their advantage and secure all three points at the end of ninety minutes. The result means the Flying Eagles were eliminated from the competition, finishing third in Group B with just three points, with four goals scored and five conceded.
Some football analysts, who expressed their anger after the match said the NFF should take the under age teams seriously like they are doing with the Super Eagles.
“It’s embarrassing that our U-20 team cannot beat South Sudan convincingly. They lost to Uganda and Senegal,” Samson Egbodibie said during a radio sports programme monitored in Lagos, yesterday.
Another fan, Susan said; “I am very sure the coach will start to give excuses that he did not have enough yimr yo prepare tge team, and that was the reason for his failure. Personally, I have never had any confident whatsoever in Ladan Bosso. Only NFF President and Secretary know what they see in him.”
