Coach Aliyu Zubairu makes a statement with Flying Eagles’ success

By Tosin Omojola

Nigeria’s U-20 coach, Aliyu Zubairu is undoubtedly the man of the moment in the West African country, as far as football is concerned

He can only stand side by side with Super Eagles forward Ademola Lookman, who finished as the 14th World best player at Monday’s Ballon d’ Or ceremony, held in Paris, France.

48 hours after Lookman made the headlines, coach Zubairu, also made a strong statement, after he led the Flying Eagles to successfully defend the sub regional tourney, the WAFU B U-20 Championship.

Zubairu led his lads to beat arch rivals, Ghana 2-1 in the championship’s grand finale in Lome, Togo.

The triumph came after a very faulty start in which the Nigerian side lost 0-1 to Burkina Fason in their opening match.

The team will later beat Cote d’ Ivoire 2-1 in the final group game, to qualify for the semi final where the Nigerians came from behind to beat Niger Republic 2-1, to set the stage for a final showdown with the Black Satellites of Ghana.

At the end of the 90 minutes, Nigeria emerged victors in Wednesday night’s final via a 2-1 win.

The Flying Eagles’ feat, is in no small means, a testament to the technical knowhow of the soft spoken sweat merchant, who only got the nod to tinker the team few months ago .

Within the last few months, coach Zubairu has made a strong impact as far as the coaching professional is concerned.

Here is a breakdown of the gaffer’s excellent ride within few months

• He led El-Kanemi Warriors of Maiduguru to stage a return to the NPFL.
• He piloted the same El-Kanemi Warriors to win the prestigious President Federation Cup 2024.
• He was appointed as Head Coach of Flying Eagles of Nigeria,.shortly after those achievements.
• He has now won WAFU-B Trophy with the Flying Eagles of Nigeria.

In addition to winning the sub regional championship, coach Zubairu has tutored the Flying Eagles to qualify for the 2025 AFCON, to be hosted by South Africa.

All these happened in the year 2024.

Next for the sweat merchant, to cap up this impressive run is to win he Afcon next year and ultimately lead the lads to book a ticket to the FIFA U-20 World Cup.