12th April, 2013
The cream of Africa’s junior players is expected to come to the top at the 10th CAF U17 championship, which kicks off on Saturday in Morocco.
The competition has produced stars like Stephen Appiah, Ossei Kuffour, Andrew Ayew, Nee Odartey Lamptey, Frank Amankwah, Daniel Addo, Anthony Yeboah(Ghana), Yousuf Hadji(Moroco), Kanu Nwankwo, Celestine Babayaro, Macauley Christantus,Nduka Ugbade, Mikel Obi (Nigeria), just to mention a few.
This competition will produce four qualifiers for the 2013 FIFA U17 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates in October and it is also expected to roll out stars that will take the world by storm in the near future. Nigeria, who have been absent for the last two editions in 2009 and 2011 are looking forward to win their third title at this level and they will open their campaign with what is expected to be a cracking game against perennial rivals Ghana on Sunday at the Grand Stade de Marrakech.
Nigeria and Ghana have won the continental diadem and are both favourite to lift the trophy in Morocco. Both West African countries have also won the FIFA U17 World Cup with Nigeria having won it three times, while the Black Satellites have done so twice.
The Golden Eaglets are yet to lose any game, be it qualifier or friendly, prior to this tournament and are therefore rated among the favourites for glory in Morocco.
The Nigeria youngsters play a very exciting passing game similar to mighty Barcelona and drawn against another top football country Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire and Congo in Group B.
The Eaglets were African champions in 2001 and 2007, beating Burkina Faso 3-0 and Togo 1-0 after extra time, respectively.
They eliminated Niger, Guinea and Mali to qualify for this competition and then trained in Doha, Qatar, for a month. Hosts Morocco will open the competition against Gabon on Saturday at the Complexe Sportif Mohammed V Stadium in Casablanca.
Tunisia and debutants Botswana are the other teams in Group A.
Interestingly, defending champions Burkina Faso are not in Morocco to defend their crown they won two years ago.
The semi-finals are fixed for April 23 with the championship game to be played four days later.