Monday, 28th June 2021, will live forever in the memory of every football-loving fan after two dramatic and high-quality matches.
The Euro 2020 has been an exciting competition, but it reached its peak on Monday thanks to the two rounds of 16 matches.
Spain and Croatia was the first clash of the day, and the two teams served fans a classic as La Roja sealed a 5-3 thrilling victory on a sunny evening at the Parken Stadium in Copenhagen.
It’s arguably the game of the tournament so far, but if there’s any other match that could make fans say otherwise, it’s the one that followed.
World champions and pre-tournament favourites France took on the less-fancied Swiss in the day’s other round of 16 game.
Switzerland were not given a chance going into the game, but they showed their intent from the start as Harris Seferovic gave them a shock lead in the 15th minute.
The Swiss had an opportunity to double their lead when they were awarded a penalty in the 55th minute, but Ricardo Rodriguez fluffed his lines.
It was an opportunity he would rue as France scored three times to take a two-goal lead. It looked like the French were on course for a win until Seferovic and substitute Mario Gavranovic scored in the last ten minutes to level the scores for Switzerland and send the match into extra time.
Neither side could find the winner in the 30 minutes that followed, and the match went into a penalty shootout, which the Swiss won after Kylian Mbappe missed the decisive penalty for France.
It was indeed a brilliant performance and a deserved win for the Swiss, given they had no chance going into the match and the challenge of coming back after missing an opportunity to go two goals up.
However, while it’s a performance the Swiss will remember for ages, it’s important to note that the foundation of this victory was laid in Nigeria 12 years ago.
Three players from the Swiss lineup on Monday were part of the Swiss U-17 team that won the 2009 FIFA U-17 World Cup hosted by Nigeria.
Captain and man of the match, Granit Xhaka, brace hero, Harris Seferovic and Ricardo Rodriguez, who missed the penalty, were all in the Swiss U-17 squad that conquered the world 12 years ago.
The Swiss’ success against France on Monday is a lesson for Nigeria. The Golden Eaglets also impressed at the 2009 U17 World Cup, but they lost to Switzerland in the final.
However, unlike Switzerland, only Kenneth Omeruo from that Golden Eaglets squad is currently playing for the Super Eagles, which shows you can’t cheat your ways to victory.
These age-grade tournaments organised by FIFA are seen as a chance to develop young talents, but for Nigerian football authorities and coaches, they see it as a win at all cost.
Over the years, players representing Nigeria at these age-grade competitions are overaged, which is why many of them don’t get to play at the top level.
One player that stood out from that Golden Eaglets team was Stanley Okoro, popularly called “little Messi” because he has the qualities of the Barcelona legend.
Okoro wowed fans with his amazing talents at the competition with three goals to his name. Another player that caught the eye was Sani Emmanuel, who finished as the joint top scorer along with Seferovic with five goals.
Following the tournament, many expected the two players to go on to achieve great things, but their careers faded into thin air even before it started.
It’s not a surprise, given it was clear to the naked eye that they were overaged at that U-17 World Cup. In contrast, eight of the players from that Swiss team went on to play for the national team, with three playing a key role in the win over France on Monday.
Although Nigeria also had players like Ogenyi Onazi, Kenneth Omeruo, Olanrewaju Kayode, and Ramon Azeez that would go on to play for the Super Eagles, their time at the top level was short.
Onazi claims to be 28-years-old, but the best club he could get right now is FK Žalgiris in Lithuania. Kayode, who is the youngest, currently plays for Sivasspor in Turkey.
Omeruo and Azeez are currently struggling in the Spanish second division with Leganes and FC Cartagena, respectively.
Meanwhile, players like Neymar Jnr, Philippe Coutinho, Casemiro, Alisson Becker, Emiliano Martinez, Marc-Andre Ter Stegen, Bernd Leno, Koke, Alvaro Morata, Pablo Sarabia and Sergi Roberto played at the tournament, and have gone to play for the biggest clubs.
The success of these players shows why cheating in age-grade competitions will always come back to haunt teams and players that lie about their ages.
Nigeria’s Golden Eaglets team that won the 2007 U-17 World Cup also suffered the same fate as their successor.
In fact, it was worse for the players in the 2007 set as none of them played for the national team or at the top level.
Macauley Chrisantus won the golden boot and the silver ball behind Toni Kroos, but he currently plays for a club in Finland.
In contrast, Kroos plays for Real Madrid and just finished representing Germany at Euro 2020, having won the World Cup in 2014.
The cheating has reduced in recent years, though, which is why the likes of Iheanacho, Osimhen and Ndidi have found success.
However, Nigeria football authorities and coaches need to stop the practice entirely as it doesn’t help the players or national team in the long run.
The team may win at that particular moment, but Switzerland and players used as examples have shown that you can’t cheat your way to success.
This post was last modified on %s = human-readable time difference 8:14 am
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How many of the England players that won the under 17 or under 20 world cups play for real Madrid,man u, juventus and so called super clubs,.stop chatting bs. By all means criticism is your god's given right ,use it wisely
Mr okoro, England 2017 u 20 world cup squad had dean Henderson now at Man united, fikayo tomori now at AC Millan, Maitland miles Arsenal, Kyle walker peters Spurs.
Their U 17 world cup squad had jadon Sancho of dortmund who just concluded his big money move to Man united, Phil foden man city, callum Hudson odoi Chelsea, Emile Smith Rowe Arsenal and many more, meanwhile it's just 4 years on from the tournament which means they still have a lot of years ahead of them to get better as a player
This writer is irresponsible. He has just maligned players NFF. He di not give any evidence of cheating. I wonder if he is the parents of those players that he knows their age. He is just an idiot
@Tosin thanks for putting out these examples! Too much corruption in Nigerian football abeg!
Amateur write up without proof. Omeruo, Afeez amongst others are still playing not to mention Onazi. Everyone knows African players have to do a lot more but that aside how much do you compare to your contemporaries abroad?
I expect much more from you guys.
You should be ashamed of yourself look at the the picture above and tell me apart from Kenneth who else is below 18yes., and you are there opening your dirty mouth to talk about the writer marginalized NFF. Thats why we can't learn
I just looked at omeruo in awe. He was so young. Bro, we had 30yr olds in that squad, and they still didn't win. Smh
You cannot say that. U r indeed biased or sentimental. Its obvious. Y r u calling him irresponsible??. Someone have critically analyzed a situation, given correct examples to proof his/her points. The only thing u can do is to prove otherwise with facts and/or examples, u r here making noise.
This writer is irresponsible. He has just maligned players NFF. He di not give any evidence of cheating. I wonder if he is the parents of those players that he knows their age. He is just an idiot
Oga why you dey deceive yourself...... we all know the history of our country using over-aged boys , na today?.
You cannot just come online or even in beer parlor discussion say things without evidence. How will you feel if I now say you are a thief and drug dealer when I don't even know you. Will you be happy? Any allegation without evidence is wicked. We must stop this nonsense
Oga, go and sit down....You speak like an illiterate. This is a very simple explanation that everyone can understand.... I advice u go thru that article again and ponder on it for a while b4 u start talking.....Please, please, we should endeavor to tell ourselves the truth at least.. even if it might not have any positive impact on situations like this...it we go along way to help u and the society in general bcos the truth sets all of us free......if given the chance to become a key member of the NFF crew, u will make a difference and by large other sectors.
The truth is we have d impression that we use over aged boys in our games but when we see d likes of Mikel, ighalo, ndidi , ihenacho...I wonder if this our claim is real...chukwueze is still there....I remember there was a time d age of ihenacho was questioned wen he was at man city becos he had beards....does it mean a guy at 18 can't grow beards....as long as we say all this without evidence it's outright foolishness and immaturity...where is proof if all our claim is true?????
Oga, u have just mentioned 5-6 players out of the lot...Remember, we won the u17 in 07,13,15....where is the evidence..Also, recall that the main reason for grassroot football is to serve as feeders to the main team. From rational reason, the Nigeria super eagles is meant to be at least good enough to compete globally....but what are we ranked today...32nd, even below Iran..hahaha..Well you may also blame the backroom staff
From the initial article portrayed by my author, He made a very powerful example...about christantus and kroos...I don't know if u watched that tournament..I still had a vivid memory about it..the difference between Chris n kroos was quite much, although kroos won the best player award. My point is, where are the now. Let's take a look at Kroos
After the tournament, Kroos went back to his club Bayern youth team, the next year, he graduated to Bayern 2. The following year, he graduated to the main team. If u watch his development, u will attest to the fact that Kroos was a great lad......he also went on to play for Germany u19, u20 n u21 teams. You can see his progress, why, because he was within the age grade and was special. Same can't be said for Chris, he was given a great opportunity to progress as a great baller he showed us to be, that is at hoffenheim. They took him straight into their youth team, but little did the club knows that Chris was at his prime. He was very very prolific in the youth team, he was promoted to the main team..but could not meet up with the qualities needed because amongst his mate, he was regarded as average, the coach was not disturbed bcos he felt he is still a young lad. The loaned him to division 2 where d standards r low, still Chris could not compete amongst his mate...the rest was history...
Bros he was over aged biko...no other explanation. If u look, others in the u17 winning team was if the same standard ad Chris, why? Bcos de were playing against children....My brother think well.. No allow them use ur brain do juju
This is the most irresponsible write up I have seen in a while. Is the writer not aware that the NFF screened all the players using the MRI that detects fusion of the diaphysis in long bones in males for that 2009 tournament? A process which weeded out nearly the entire team that played and lost the qualifiers to Benin? We only played that tournament as hosts.
Anyone who knows about football knows that the collapse of the YSFON/Academicals system is why our players no longer do well enough to make big teams. That system produced the likes of Keshi, Nwosu, Siasia, Peter Rufai, Ugbade, etc. The kids were caught young and groomed in football basics and tactics. In Europe and other places, you start at 6 years if you want to make it to the top. Not at 16 years. It is not as a result of players being overaged: the MRI has weeded that out. It is because we have abandoned youth football programmes that home talent into skill.
Very poor and embarrassing piece of journalism. Accusing Nigeria of cheating in age group football smacks of sheer irresponsibility. The NFF and the players probably switched off the M.R.I machines or bribed FIFA to avoid being screened..... Nonsense
Very well written and researched. Only those who hate the truth will argue. Some say the MRI was used in 2009, who was there to prove it?? How many of those players progressed to the national team later on? Cheating has consequences.
Joba Ogunwale should hang his head in shame for this article. If this wasn't Nigeria, he'd probably be facing the law for this. Where's your evidence? Where's your proof? We just assume something and it immediately becomes fact? Is this what journalism has become? African players always have it too hard when it comes to getting into top clubs and top global football academies unless they also have European citizenship. Osimhen, Ndidi, Chukwueze and Iheanacho are just part of the gifted, lucky ones.
Now, let me address the total ineptitude in this article. Under-17 world cup squads always consist of 21 players but why focus on only a handful of players from 2007? Yes, Toni Kroos is world class and at the top of the round leather game but out of 21 players who represented Germany at the tournament, only two other players ever played for Germany at the senior level. Sebastian Rudy played 29 times for Die Mannschaft but never played at a major tournament while Kevin Trapp has only 5 caps to his name. Where are the rest of the team? Can you mention any other who set the world or even the domestic stage alight?
That same year, France competed with a squad of 21 like every other country. Only two players from that squad ever made it to the senior national team. Those players are Mamadou Sakho and Yann M'vila who were arguably the best players in the group. Where are they now and what did they ever turn out to be in the grand scheme of things?
For Belgium, only Eden Hazard and Christian Benteke got to represent their country at the highest level.
Brazil? The one time Manchester United twins, Rafael and Fabio ended up having just 2 caps each while Giuliano who plays for Istanbul Basaksehir in Turkey was capped 14 times but never represented his country in a major tournament. Those were the only ones to ever pull on a senior Brazil football Jersey.
The almighty England that some readers made comments about competed as well but only two (2) players ever pulled on a Three Lions jersey. The names of the players? Danny Welbeck and Danny Rose. We all know how how their careers are going, don't we? Where are the remaining nineteen (19)? Were they also over-aged? I will list their names here for the benefit of the readers who might find that fact incredulous but I warn you, you will be hard pressed to recognise any name that comes up next. Jason Steele, Nana-ofori Twumasi, James Reid, Henri Lansbury, Krystian Pearce, Tommy Smith, Rhys Murphy, Nathan Porritt, Dan Gosling, Alex Smithies, Michael Woods, Jordan Spence, Gavin Hoyte, Tristan Plummer, Jonathan Franks, Ashley Chambers, Medy Elito, Wes Foderingham. Victor Moses is the 19th player and we know him because of his exploits with the Super Eagles, Chelsea and Liverpool. A fact that should also be noted is that fifteen (15)of the twenty-one (21) players in that squad were contracted to Premier league teams at the time, including Manchester United, Chelsea, West Ham, Arsenal, Tottenham, just to mention a few. Yet, the article talks about being in top academies (Christantus) and not making the grade because the Nigerian players were hopelessly over-aged forgetting that Lukman Haruna was also in that squad and made a huge impact for the super eagles before injuries tore his career to shreds just like they did to his muscles.
Okay, on to 2009, the tournament that Switzerland won on Nigerian soil against the likes of Omeruo. I could start listing so many examples but I will stick to a few as I can't begin to do Joba Ogunwale's job for him. Let's start with Italy, another football powerhouse. The only players to step on the pitch for the national team from their under-17 squad were Mattia Perin (2 caps) and Stephan El Sharawy (29 caps). None of them is at the ongoing European Championship which the writer of the article began to draw comparisons and examples from.
Japan had Ryo Miyaichi (Arsenal fans should recognise the name) in 2009 as well. He turned out to be the best of the bunch but he plays for St. Pauli in the German second division - I'm mentioning this because the writer seems to look with heavy disgust at lower leagues in the traditional football powerhouses and even the top leagues in other countries. Was Japan's entire squad over-aged too?
The Netherlands even had Ola John in 2009, what happened to him? Or should we assume, based on the article, that since he's Nigerian by birth, he obviously was over-aged and the Netherlands decided to take him along because after all, all Nigerian age grade players are definitely way past the age limit?
Mr. Joba Ogunwale, your article is total rubbish. No reporter or pundit even should ever give information to the general public without ironclad facts. It took me all of 25 minutes to get disgusted at this article, then do a little research on the squads, decide how much facts to fit in my comment (I've got a lot to do with my time), and eventually type and submit this. The funny thing here is that I've never written a journalistic article in my life but there you are with your tag and description that says "experienced sports content writer and editor-in-chief". Please, do us all a favour and clear out your desk because you clearly have sentimental and seriously ulterior motives or you're just simply a bitter, lazy reporter who has no idea what he's doing and obviously doesn't give a hoot about research. Nobody like that should ever be allowed to write a sports article, let alone be called a journalist.
- Michael 'Lowkiz' Isobara
The problem with mosf of you is that you people don't read.
The writer did not say not alll players that played in age-grade competitons get to play. It's about the longevity of these players.
Since you've decided to show your ignorannce, please tell me how many of the Nigerian players at the 2007 and 2009 u-17 World Cup still play at the top level? The article cleary stated play at top level. You have players playing in the Finnish League, Lithuanian League at the age of 28, but you decided to be ignorant, saying it's lack of opportunities. The German players, Brazilian players you mentioned, many of them still play till today. How many of our players play currently right now and where are the they playing.? Read up and stop being ignorant
Do you mean Argentina, Netherlands, Uruguay, Italy who don't have those players in their national squad also cheated?
The post did not say they are no more players or any wring age was confirmed against them. They may not achieve as thousands of players have appeared within the time frame, but why do we bent kn incriminating our people even when nothing is proving against them?
You've presented no proof of cheat from NFF. It is evil when you think any success that comes from Nigeria must be a cheat.
You have to state that all teams that participated in the tournament and don't have up to 2 players in their present national squad have played with overage players. Is that logical at all?