The Golden Eaglets stormed Canada for the U-17 world cup in 1987. They played 1 – 1 draw against then USSR (Soviet Union) in their first game.

They later defeated Bolivia 3 – 2 and lost 0 – 1 to Mexico in their second and final group games and emerged second in Group D behind USSR. They beat Australia 1 – 0 in the quarterfinals and defeated Italy 1 – 0 in the semifinals to set up a rematch against USSR in the final. The final game ended 1 – 1 after extra time but USSR won 4 – 2 on penalties. The Golden Eaglets came second in the competition with Nigeria’s Philip Osondu emerging the tournaments’s Most Valuable Player and was presented with a Golden Ball. The commentator had screamed during the final match that “if Nigeria wins this match, I’m not gonna be surprised because they’ve got a bunch of talented players”. The great Pele watched with delight and said that with what he was seeing, an African team would win the world cup in no distant time. What went wrong afterwards?

Find the squad below (remember the coach was Sebastian BRODERICK IMASUEN who had coached the first set of Eaglets that won the maiden edition in China in 1985):