Barring any last minute change of mind, the Nigeria Football Federation ( NFF) will next week release the list of coaches who have been appointed to handle the various youth teams of the country.
Although the NFF released a list of coaches who have been appointed to handle the team last year, the coaches were not given letters of appointment, according to reports exclusively gathered by Owngoalnigeria.com editorial team.
As things stand now, former Nigeria U17 World Cup winning coach Manu Garba is highly favoured to take charge of the U17 team, while coach of Akwa United Abdullahi Maikaba who was earlier announced as U17 coach will move to the U20s.
Reports also has it that coach Paul Aigbogun of Enyimba will handle the U23s with probably former Nigeria U23 forward and coach of Nigeria Professional Football League champions Plateau United Kennedy Boboye will be his assistant.
We gathered the Technical Committee of the NFF have already forwarded their choice of coaches to the board, and an announcement would be made next week including the names of their various assistants.
Both teams are expected to begin camping soonest as their qualifiers will be played sometimes around April later in the year, with the coaches under pressure to avoid the failures of last year, where Nigeria failed to qualify for any youth tournament.
Ade Emmanuel
