The Golden Eaglets of Nigeria have retained the FIFA Under-17 World Cup. They beat fellow Africans Mali on Sunday, November 8, 2015 to lift the trophy.
Earlier in the day, Belgium won the tournament’s bronze medal after beating Mexico 3-2 in a thrilling third -place match.
The final match which ended 2-0 at Vina del Mar saw the Nigerian boys score two goals in three second-half minutes.
Nigeria’s first goal came in the 56th minute through the tournament’s top scorer, Victor Osimhen. He had just received a low cross pass from midfielder, Chinedu Madueke which he fired in past Malian goalkeeper, Samuel Diarra. That goal was a record-breaking goal as it saw him surpass the records of nine goals scored by Florent Sinama Pongolle in 2001 and Souleymane Coulibaly ten years later. Osimhen is the tournament’s highest goal scorer of all time.
The Eaglets second goal came three minutes later through Funsho Bamgboye who ran down the left flank before firing in a powerful effort at goal.
There were also individual awards for the Nigerian players as the Eaglet’s skipper, Kelechi Nwakali won the adidas Golden Ball and the adidas Bronze Boot. Record goal-scorer, Victor Osimhen obviously won the adidas Golden Boot and adidas Silver Ball. The adidas Golden Gloves for best goalkeeper went to Mali’s Samuel Diarra.
This is the fifth time Nigeria is winning the Under-17 World Cup following successful outings at China 1985, Japan 1993, Korea Republic 2007 and UAE 2013. Nigeria has also won silver medal in the competition on three occasions.
Congratulations Nigeria!
Watch the highlights:
