Former Chelsea starlet Daniel Jinadu says playing for Nigeria at the 2019 FIFA U17 World Cup has helped his career.
Jinadu, who was the Golden Eaglets first choice goalkeeper during the tournament in Brazil, admitted that he learnt some valuable lessons training with the Nigeria squad, different from the training methods at his English Premier League club West Ham.
"My experience in the World Cup with Nigeria in Brazil was very, very good. I learnt a lot from the experience playing in front of large crowds," Jinadu said in an interview with Bunmi Blair.
"The training style of Nigeria helped me in a different way because it's different to what I'm used to, it made me stronger and more physically capable to be able to cope with the demands of the game.
"It was a very good experience in the Nigerian culture, stepping on that pitch and playing in front of all those fans and all the Nigerians supporting us from back home I really felt the love and being able to represent my country of birth was really, really a big thing which I was so honoured to do."
The goalkeeping department was one of the problem areas during the U17
AFCON and regional qualifiers, with the team conceding 13 goals in
total, and Jinadu, with his experience with the England U15 and U16 squads, was handed a late call-up by the coaching staff.
The 2002-born goalkeeper has confessed that those defensive frailties which had been a cause for concern haunted them during the World Cup in Brazil.
"What went wrong in the World Cup? We were not organized defensively, we could have done much better defensively and also we could have been more clinical attacking-wise.
"I feel like we've done well to come back against Ecuador and to beat Hungary as well in the group stage. Defensively when we played Netherlands, it should have been better," he concluded.
"I feel like we've done well to come back against Ecuador and to beat Hungary as well in the group stage. Defensively when we played Netherlands, it should have been better," he concluded.
Jinadu recently penned his first professional contract with West Ham and one of his targets is to make his debut in the English Premier League.
Ifeanyi Emmanuel
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