U20 FIFA World Cup: We will inject new players to the team, Zubairu says

Ahead of the FIFA U20 World Cup in Chile, Flying Eagles coach Aliyu Zubairu has assured that plans are on to invite new players to strengthen his squad.

Zubairu stated this on Tuesday in Ilorin at the Kwara SWAN Hard Talk.

“We’ll be inviting more players to bolster all departments. We must fix the issues we saw at the AFCON, especially our finishing,” he said.

He acknowledged the team’s struggles with goal scoring during the recent U-20 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) in Morocco.

The coach said that the new additions would bring more balance and depth to the team. “We will be inviting more players to strengthen all departments,” he said. He emphasised the need to address key deficiencies so far observed in the team.

In spite of the team narrowly missing the AFCON title, Zubairu praised the team’s qualification for the World Cup as a significant achievement.

He promised to surpass the milestone achieved by Samson Siasia, who won a silver medal with the Flying Eagles at the U20 World Cup final in 2005 in the Netherlands.

He attributed the poor performance of El-Kanemi Warriors of Maiduguri in the 2024/25 NPFL season to a lack of cohesion in the mid-season signings and the exit of two key players to Europe.