Siver Jubilee of Nigeria's 'China'85' Success.

It is exactly twenty-five (25)years today when eighteen (18) Nigerian youngsters left the shores of the Country for far away China to participate in the Inaugural Fifa U-16 World Cup Championship. After 2-weeks of some exciting football matches, the Nigerian team defeated Germany in the finals by two goals to nil to lift the trophy. The second goal scored by Victor Igbinoba remained etched in the memories of millions of Nigerian who saw the historic match on Television
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The victory laid a marker for other Nigerian teams as until that time, the only previous Nigerian participation in a global Football Tournament was two years earlier when a certain Ali Jeje captained the Nigerian U20 team to the Mexico '83 Championship where it failed to go beyond the first round. The achievement of those boys in 1985 opened the eyes of the world to the abundant talents that abound in the Country, and Africa in general. This was highlighted in the Technical report of the world football governing body Fifa which wrote:
 
       '......Of all the tournaments organised by FIFA, this was the very first that an African team had won.              Was this luck? No, hard work. The Nigerians had obvious innate talent, but this had been brought to a           state of perfection and, coupled with excellent physical condition and perfect tactical play, made them           look like champions from their very first game.

The China success has since been the yardstick of achievement among Nigerian teams as successive teams representing the country try to match it. Football explosion among youngsters was one of the offshoot of this victory as more Nigerian families began to encourage their children to take part in football. Nigerian Football reaped from this freedom enjoyed by the youths as more talents were unearthed from obscurity and this consequently led to the massive achievement of the 90's in Nigerian Football.
Sadly the accusation of age falsification among recent teams is not only killing the interest in the age-group competitions but killing Nigerian football.

Take a bow Lucky Agbonsebvafe, Tenworimi Duere, Fatai Atere, Binabi Numa, Captain Nduka Ugbade, Joseph Babatunde, Bella Momoh, Mohammed Yahaya, Chukuma Nwoha, Hilary Adiki, Salisu Nakande, Victor Igbinoba, Sani Adamu, Kingsley Aikhionbore(Deceased), Jonathan Akpoborie, Imama Amapakabor, Bauldwin Bazuaye,Dele Abubakar and of course Coach Sebastien Broderick.