Head coach of Nigeria U-17 team Manu Garba has dropped over 500 players who turned up for screening with the Golden Eaglet owing to discrepancies in their age.
Speaking to Owngoalnigeria.com after Wednesday training session, the soft spoken gaffer said detecting players over the age of 17 wasn’t hard for him as he has been involved with the team since 2007.
“My experience with U-17 has helped me, some I look in the eyes and know they are above the age limit while some a short chat with them will tell you all you need to know about their age” He told Owngoalnigeria.com
“From my last count, I dropped over 300 players without even allowing them to kick a ball while a further 200 were asked to go after two days of training, aside the age cheats some others were dropped as they are below the level of quality we are looking for.
“The idea is to select the best legs who are within the age bracket as even if we turn blind to the age cheats , the mandatory MRI scan will hunt us in the long run”.
The screening will last another two weeks after which successful players will be called into the team’s camp ahead of their 2017 Africa U-17 Youth Championship qualifiers against Niger Republic in August.
*Rasheed Michael
