ABUJA – Coach Emmanuel Amuneke of the National Under-17 team, Golden Eaglets, on Friday decamped five players ahead of their final round of CAN U-17 qualifying match against Gabon.
A statement issued in Abuja by the team’s Media Officer, Morakinyo Abodunrin, quoted Amuneke as saying that the players did not measure up to standard.
He said the players were dropped from the list of 35 players in camp in Calabar.
The players, Ebije Yahaya, Prince Omosowhofa, Chinedu Madueke, Kingsley Ohiri and Kabiru Muhammed, who incidentally are all midfielders, had since left the camp, he added. [eap_ad_1] The Golden Eaglets are billed to take on Gabon in the final round of the CAN U-17 qualifiers.
They beat Congo DR 5-1 on aggregate in the second round of the qualifier, having drawn bye into the second round.
“The party is over and it is about time we forget about what we had done recently. But it is unfortunate that some have not really measured up to the standard we expected.
“We must now focus our attention squarely on Gabon because it will be their desire to qualify for the Under-17 Championship in Niger in 2015.
“We have reasonably pruned down the list based on the need of the team and according to their performance in comparison to others,’’ Amuneke said in the statement.
The statement also quoted the goalkeeper’s trainer, Emeka Amadi, as saying that the technical crew now had a pool of players to be called upon when the need arises.
“The good thing is that we are in a process of raising a team that can defend the FIFA U-17 World Cup won in 2013 in the United Arab Emirates.
“We will continue to shuffle the team from time to time since we have about 45 players registered with the Confederation of African Football,’’ he said. (NAN)
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