FLYING Eagles head coach Ladan is so impressed by the quality of the youngsters at the U-20 Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt that he believes they will soon steer the continent to success at the senior World Cup.
Bosso’s Nigeria defeated Uganda 1-0 on Thursday to advance to the semi-finals of the U-20 AFCON and the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Indonesia in May and June.
He heaped praise on the Ugandan team and tipped this generation of players to take Africa to the World Cup final.
The farthest an African team has reached at the senior World Cup is the semi-finals, which Morocco achieved in Qatar last December.
“The Ugandan team is very compact and I never expected them to give us such a herculean task but we thank God we had our plans for the match and we worked on them,” Bosso said in Ismailia.
“The Hippos are very composed, compact and I believe that most of their players are in their local league.
“The quality I have seen in this tournament, in the coming years African teams will play in the FIFA World Cup final.”
Bosso was satisfied his side achieved their primary aim of qualifying for the U-20 World Cup, giving credit to the entire technical crew.
“We achieved our first target which is to qualify for the World Cup and that was achieved together but most importantly back home being the president of the Nigerian Coaches Association the Nigerian coaches are solidly behind me,” he added.
“I have almost five coaches back home who are studying the opponents in the tournament and they send it to me to work on them so I dedicate this qualification to the Nigerian coaches.”
The Flying Eagles are in the hunt their eighth U-20 AFCON title and they will face fellow West Africans The Gambia in the semi-finals on Monday.
Nigeria have reached the FIFA U-20 World Cup final twice, losing both times, first to Portugal in Saudi Arabia in 1989, then to Lionel Messi’s Argentina in 2005 in The Netherlands.
