By David Kabiyesi
Barring any last-minute hitches, each member of the country’s U-20 national team will be paid $5,000 for qualifying for FIF U-20 World Cup billed for Indonesia later this year, iwitnesslive.com can report.
iwitnesslive.com exclusively gathered that the Ibrahim Musa Gusau-led Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) board is bent on fulfilling its earlier promise to reward the players with a sum of $5,000 each for picking one of the four slots despite not getting to the finals.
The players are expected to get their reward irrespective of the outcome of this evening’s third-place match against Tunisia.
Coach Ladan Bosso tutored side lost their opening game to Senegal by a lone goal. It was no small achievement that the team worked hard to bounce back from rock bottom to pip host Egyp 1-0 and Mozambique 2-0 in their second and last group match respectively.
The two wins pitched Flying Eagles against a tough Uganda side with good results on the road, but an own goal from the East Africans earned Nigeria one of the four World Cup slots.
Nigeria eventually bowed to the highly-rated Gambia in the semi-final losing by a lone goal to end their dream of carting away the coveted trophy. The third-place match with Tunisia comes up at 4 pm today.
