Nigeria Beats Spain To Win 12TH FIFA U-17 World Cup

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Nigerians are celebrating the spectacular victory of the Golden Eaglets of Nigeria over the U-17 national team of Spain at the 12th FIFA U-17 World Cup Tournament, on Sunday, September 9, 2007, in the Seoul World Cup Stadium, Seoul, South Korea. And this makes it the third time that Nigerian has won the FIFA Under-17 World Cup Tournament.

It was a very grueling final match that saw both tested national teams playing beyond the regulation time of 90 minutes and the 30 minutes extra-time was still goalless, until the result came through the penalties. The superlative performance of the Nigerian goalkeeper was confirmed as he saved three spot kicks successively and spurred the selected teammates to score all their first three spot kicks to seal the fate of Spain.

The Golden Eaglets team was the hot favourite of pundits at the finals. And the Nigerian Golden Eaglets confirmed that they were the best and true champions of the 12th FIFA Under-17 World Cup Tournament with their 100% success, because they never lost a match.

The ecstatic Nigerian coach, Yemi Tella, who was relatively unknown has suddenly become an instant celebrity with this historic victory. He has made his Nigerian critics to eat their words that winning the African Championship back in March was not a flash in the pan. Yemi Tella has led the Golden Eaglets of Nigeria to their historic third World Cup triumph.

Germany captain Toni Kroos was voted the best player of the FIFA U-17 World Cup, Korea 2007, while Nigeria's Macauley Chrisantus took the adidas Golden Shoe as the tournament's top scorer. Chrisantus also pocketed the adidas Silver Ball, with Spain's Bojan judged the third most outstanding player of the tournament..

The highlights:
FIFA Under-17 World Cup Winner - Nigeria.

Adidas Golden Ball and adidas Bronze Shoe: Toni Kroos (Germany) - 5 goals, 4 assists, 26 per cent of the votes.

Adidas Silver Ball and adidas Golden Shoe: Macauley Chrisantus (Nigeria) - 7 goals, 2 assists, 25 per cent.

Adidas Silver Shoe: Ransford Osei (Ghana) - 6 goals, 3 assists.

Adidas Bronze Ball: Bojan (Spain) - 5 goals, 1 assist, 19 per cent.

FIFA Fair Play Award: Costa Rica

How Nigeria won:

Aug 19 v France (Gwangyang) WON 2-1 (Group)
Aug 22 v Japan (Gwangyang) WON 3-0 (Group)
Aug 25 v Haiti (Jeju) WON 4-1 (Group)
Aug 30 v Columbia (Gwangyang) WON 2-1 (2nd Rd)
Sep 2 v Argentina (Cheonan) WON 2-0 (QF)
Sep 6 v Germany (Suwon) WON 3-1 (SF)
Sep 9 v Spain (Seoul) WON 3-0 (F_)

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Posted September 9th, 2007 by MichaelChima