Golden Eaglets revival begins as new boss Uwejamomere accepts huge Nigeria challenge

Newly-appointed Golden Eaglets coach Eboboritse Uwejamomere has described his appointment as a “dream come true” after the Nigeria Football Federation handed him the responsibility of rebuilding the country’s struggling U-17 side, Soccernet.ng reports.

The NFF confirmed the appointment of the young tactician as the new head coach of Nigeria’s U-17 male national team, replacing long-serving youth football coach Manu Garba. The decision comes at a crucial moment for Nigeria’s age-grade football system after several disappointing years on both continental and global stages.

Uwejamomere, who has quietly built a strong reputation as one of the country’s most progressive young coaches, immediately spoke about the emotional significance of the appointment.

Taking to his X account, he wrote: “It’s a dream come true | proud to become head coach of the Nigeria U17 mens national team (the Golden Eaglets); five-time world champions. Over thirteen years of learning, patience, hard work and dedication has led to this moment…”

The new coach arrives with experience from different levels of football. He has worked with the Super Eagles as a coach-analyst and also contributed to the Super Falcons setup. At club level, he currently serves as Head of Academy at Sporting Lagos, where he helped build one of the most comprehensive youth development projects in Nigerian football.

Before that, he managed Stormers FC and also gained coaching education and academy experience in England with Millwall, Gillingham and Nottingham Forest. He holds a UEFA B coaching licence and is widely viewed as a modern coach who relies heavily on tactical structure, video analysis and data-driven decision making.

The NFF believes those qualities can help modernise the Golden Eaglets setup after years in which Nigeria’s youth teams have struggled to keep pace with rapidly evolving football systems around the world.

To support his work, Uwejamomere has assembled a new technical crew. Former Beyond Limits FA coach Olumide Joseph Ajibolade joins as first assistant coach, while Mohammed Kalli Kachala has been named second assistant coach. Abdullahi Isa will work as the team’s goalkeepers’ trainer.

Soccer Golden Eaglets: Huge task ahead after years of decline

Despite Nigeria’s legendary history at U-17 level, the Golden Eaglets have endured a painful decline in recent years.

Nigeria remain the most successful country in FIFA U-17 World Cup history with five titles won in 1985, 1993, 2007, 2013 and 2015. The team also finished runners-up in 1987, 2001 and 2009.

The Golden Eaglets made global headlines when they won the maiden FIFA U-16 World Championship in China in 1985 by defeating West Germany 2-0 in the final. Decades later, Nigeria again showed their dominance by winning back-to-back world titles in 2013 and 2015, becoming only the second nation after Brazil to successfully defend the trophy.

The team has also produced some of Nigeria’s greatest football stars. Nwankwo Kanu emerged from the famous 1993 set, John Obi Mikel rose through the 2003 squad, while Victor Osimhen became the face of the 2015 team after scoring a record 10 goals in a single tournament.

However, the picture has changed dramatically over the past few years. Nigeria failed to qualify for the 2017, 2023 and 2025 FIFA U-17 World Cups. Even more worrying was the team’s inability to qualify for the last three editions of the U-17 Africa Cup of Nations.

Their latest setback came after a painful 2-0 defeat against Ghana in the semi-finals of the WAFU B tournament, a result that ended hopes of reaching the 2026 U-17 AFCON and the FIFA World Cup.

That poor run convinced the NFF that a fresh direction was needed.

According to officials within the federation’s youth football department, Uwejamomere was chosen because of his modern tactical ideas. Rather than relying mainly on physical strength and individual brilliance, his football philosophy focuses on structured pressing, tactical flexibility and intelligent decision-making based on performance analysis.

His first major assignment will come in September during the WAFU B U-17 Boys Championship, which also serves as the qualification pathway to the Africa U-17 Cup of Nations.

But beyond winning matches, the federation reportedly wants the new coach to rebuild Nigeria’s youth football pipeline by developing at least five or six elite talents capable of progressing directly into the Flying Eagles setup.

It is now clear that Uwejamomere has embraced the mission to restore the Golden Eaglets to the top of African football and make Nigeria feared again on the world stage.