Adeyinka Olaiya, Brazil/
As Nigerians continue to rejoice over the Golden Eaglets 3-2 victory in the Tuesday FIFA Under-17 World Cup match with Ecuador, the mood in the host nation, Brazil, appears not jubilant.
The Golden Eaglets won the match by 3-2 after they had trailed Ecuador by 1-2, 15 minutes to the end of the match.
But, Brazilians are not showing much interest as they should in the tournament, which is recording low turnouts of supporters who came to watch the games.
Barely a thousand spectators watched the Nigeria’s Golden Eaglets 4-2 victory over Hungary, which was not even transmitted on Brazil’s national television.
“This FIFA Under-17 World Cup tournament is a child’s play. No Brazilian would waste his time watching kids running around the field. I will rather visit the stadium and watch Flamengo football club instead of watching the under 17 games,” Adelio Haines told NewsmakersNG in response to a question on the cause of low turnouts of fans at the venue of the mundial.
The tournament seems so insignificant to the Brazilian Football Confederation that tickets were not even advertised on any of the Brazilian television stations. All the matches are expected to be played in just two states of the federation to enable easy mobility of the players and crew members around the state of Goias and the federal capital territory.
Mr Douglas Uzor, a Brazil based Nigerian businessman considered the attitudes of the Brazilian football federation and the football lovers towards the mundial as a demonstration of ignorance. He said that if Brazil had won the tournaments five times like Nigeria did, they would have had more sponsors and more audience as expected in mundials.
Brazil, who has also won the mundial three times, paraded a team of home-based players for this year’s tournament.
“We will win the cup,” says Brazil’s coach who was so excited after defeating Canada in the opening match.
NewsmakersNG observed that the Golden Eaglets of Nigeria wouldn’t be able to enjoy much supports from Nigerians in Brazil during their ongoing campaign like the team did during the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics because of the distance from the locations where majority of Nigerians live.
“We have no time for junior categories. It’s an affair of poor football nations,” Leandro Barbosa, a football lover who sees the junior mundial as a child’s play, said.
Tatiana Lucas, a director of one of the football schools in São Bernardo do Campo, said, “I can’t waste my time watching amateur football. I will rather go and sleep than disturb myself watching the beginners.”
Nigeria and Brazil recently played a 1-1 draw at the senior category which sparkled grievances in the Brazilian football federation, reshuffling is in process so as not to get such surprise again.
The very issue that baffles the Brazilian football professionals is the success Nigeria makes in every of its junior categories but could not repeat such at the senior level.
Coach Gernot Rohr has been ranked in Brazil as a good coach who would lead Nigerian football to greater heights with the use of younger ones in the senior team.
Scouts are also out to snatch some Golden Eaglets players.
NewsmakersNG learnt that they have shown interest in signing on Nigeria’s Ibrahim Said, Tijani, and Amoo to teams in Europe if they maintain their consistency in the games.
Meanwhile, President Muhammadu Buhari has applauded the performance of the Golden Eaglets in their second game at the World Cup competition.
President Buhari, in a statement by his spokesman, Mr Femi Adesina in Abuja, says: “The fact that the youngsters never gave up, and turned the table against their opponents, is a lesson in persistence and resilience.”
The president recommended the can-do spirit displayed by the young boys to Nigerians, urging them to display such in all areas of endeavor, and in national development.
While wishing the Eaglets well in their final group match against Australia, which may well be a formality, Buhari pledged government support to the team, as they strive to win the Under 17 World Cup yet again, thus confirming Nigeria’s position as a global power at that level.
With the win against Ecuador, Nigeria remain top of Group B and will face Australia in their last group game on November 1.
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