Last chance saloon for Flying Eagles coach Ladan Bosso

The Nigeria U-20 national team, Flying Eagles, will be heading to Egypt in February for the 2023 CAF U-20 Africa Cup of Nations which serves as qualifiers for the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Indonesia later in May 2023.

Most Nigerian football fans have been critical of the decision of the Nigeria Football Federation to hand national team jobs to coaches who had been in same jobs previously but failed to produce good results.

Ladan Bosso is one of such coaches who had been in charge of the Flying Eagles but with question marks on his capabilities.

He was in charge of the Flying Eagles that participated in the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Canada where they were eliminated in the quarterfinals stage and their brand of football not impressing a lot of supporters.

Bosso has vowed to make amends for previous average performances with the Nigerian U-20 national side.

The former Wikki Tourists of Bauchi coach was handed the job of the team once again and he won the WAFU U-20 tournament in 2022 that qualified the team for the AFCON in Egypt. 

The team Bosso put together for the WAFU Cup showed promise and they must carry on with that rich vain. 

However, there are bound to be new players in the team heading to major tournaments after the qualification campaign as is known of Nigerian teams, with its attendant distractions which could unbalance the side. 

Bosso is extending invitations to new players to shore up his team as part of the efforts to build a strong team capable of picking up one of the four tickets to the  U-20 World Cup. 

The new set of  foreign-based players are Nigerians irrespective of where they were born.

The desire to improve the team is a good step but he has to get a good balance of consistency and freshness in his squad. 

Qualifying for the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Indonesia is the ultimate goal of the team and the coach has been vocal about his plans for the U-20 AFCON. 

Bosso and his team are expected to reach the latter ends of the tournament in Egypt and hopefully, in Indonesia. 

A group stage ouster in both tournaments or even a round of 16 elimination if they qualify for the World Cup in Indonesia is simply not good enough. 

Should Bosso's team not qualify for the FIFA U-20 World Cup, or perhaps indeed qualify for the tournament but fail to make great strides in Indonesia, then it should be a good-bye to the coach on the national team front.

Izuchukwu Michael

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