Former Nigeria U17 head coach Manu Garba has blamed the decline in the country’s youth football success on structural changes introduced during the tenure of ex-Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) President Amaju Pinnick, Soccernet.ng reports.
Nigeria’s once-dominant U17 side — the Golden Eaglets — have seen a sharp downturn in fortunes in recent years.
The team has failed to replicate the heights of their 2013 and 2015 FIFA U17 World Cup triumphs and will miss both the 2025 U17 Africa Cup of Nations and the FIFA U17 World Cup in Qatar after failing to qualify.
Garba, who led Nigeria to the 2013 U17 World Cup title in the United Arab Emirates, said the team’s failure is rooted in Pinnick’s controversial decision to remove match bonuses for age-grade teams.
“One reason is that the removal of match bonuses for age grade teams by former NFF president Amaju Pinnick did more harm than good as paying match bonus was a sort of motivation,” Garba told the Nation.
“We have seen that when we won the AFCON U17 Tournament in Togo 2007, FIFA U17 World Cup in South Korea, and our AFCON U17 qualifying matches in 2013, AFCON U17 and FIFA U17 World Cup in the UAE. It’s (allowances and match-winning bonus) a sort of extrinsic motivation.”
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Pinnick took over the reins of the NFF in 2014, a year after Nigeria’s Golden Eaglets won the U17 World Cup for the fourth time.
Under his watch, the team claimed another title in 2015, with standout performances from Victor Osimhen, who netted 10 goals to win the Golden Boot, and Kelechi Nwakali, who claimed the Player of the Tournament.
But Garba said things quickly changed after that success.
He claimed that shortly after lifting the 2015
World Cup, Pinnick discontinued payment of match bonuses to players in youth categories—a move he believes destroyed the motivational structure that had long driven success at the U17 level.
Garba also maintains that a poor preparation schedule for the Golden Eaglets has played as much of a damaging role as the removal of match bonuses.
“Apart from the 2013 and 2015 FIFA World Cup-winning teams coached by me and Emmanuel Amuneke that had gotten adequate preparation, the other generation of players after those feats couldn’t get enough time in camp to gel together and play cohesively,” Garba explained.
“Unlike the 2013 FIFA U17 World Cup-winning team in the UAE that had stayed together for months even before the AFCON U17 Tournament; and that explained why that team still holds the World Cup record of scoring 25 goals and conceding only four, winning the most valuable player award, best goalkeeper, second top scorer and fair play Trophy and Gold Medal.”
Since their last global triumph in 2015, Nigeria’s U17 team has failed to make a significant impact. They last won the Africa U17 Cup of Nations in 2007 and now face a second consecutive absence from the FIFA U17 World Cup.
