Zenith Bank/NFF Future Eagles demonstrate strength at 2019 FIFA Under-17 World Cup

&NewLine;<p><strong> <&sol;strong>Almost all the impact players for the Golden Eaglets in Saturday night’s 4-2 defeat of Hungary in the opening match of the 2019 FIFA U-17 World Cup tournament in Brazil are products of the annual Zenith Bank&sol;NFF Future Eagles Championships&comma; including the goal scorers&period; The competition&comma; sponsored by NFF’s partner&comma; Zenith Bank Plc&comma; was launched in 2016 and has been widely lauded for its vision&comma; with both U-13 and U-15 competitions running side-by-side right from the states to the zones and then to the national finals&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Samson&NewLine;Tijani&comma; captain of the team and playmaker&comma; who netted two goals &lpar;Nigeria’s&NewLine;first and last goals&rpar;&comma; and was named Man Of The Match&comma; is a product of the&NewLine;competition&comma; as well as defender Usman Ibrahim&comma; whose powerful header off a&NewLine;corner kick restored parity after several attempts by Nigeria had been foiled&period;<br>&NewLine;Right back Oluwatimilehin Adeniyi&comma; whose&NewLine;powerful header off a cross by another substitute Ibraheem Jabaar put Nigeria&NewLine;ahead for the first time in the game &lpar;3-2&rpar;&comma; also emerged from the Zenith&NewLine;Bank&sol;NFF Future Eagles competition&period; He was severely injured before the Africa&NewLine;U-17 Cup of Nations in Tanzania in April&comma; and could not make the trip&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Also of note is Akinkunmi Ayobami Amoo&comma; whose entry into the game in the second half brought more vigour into the Nigerian attack&period; Amoo is a product of the Zenith Bank&sol;NFF Future Eagles Championship&comma; alongside forward Olakunle Olusegun&comma; who also fought like a Trojan in Saturday’s encounter&period; Another player who is a product of the Future Eagles Championship and is with the Eaglets in Brazil is Divine Nwachukwu&comma; but he did not taste action against the Hungarians&period;<br> The Zenith Bank&sol;NFF Future Eagles Championship also supplies the players to the U-15 National Boys’ team&comma; which finished as runner-up at a tournament in Japan few months ago&period; In fact&comma; Usman Ibrahim&comma; who netted the equalizer against Hungary before further goals by Adeniyi and Tijani&comma; was in the squad that went to Japan&period;<br> Nigeria&comma; five –time champions of the FIFA U-17 World Cup take on Ecuador&comma; host of the 1995 edition&comma; in their next match of the tournament on Thursday&comma; also at the Estadio Olimpico in Goiania where they put Hungary to the sword&period;Their final match of Group B&comma; against Australia&comma; will take them to Brasilia&comma; on Friday&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Zenith Bank&NewLine;remains the biggest corporate social responsibility &lpar;CSR&rpar; contributor in the&NewLine;Nigerian financial services industry&period; The bank regularly make donations towards&NewLine;the development of various sectors of the Nigerian economy including education&comma;&NewLine;health&comma; sports&comma; etc&period; In addition to being a major sponsor of the Nigeria&NewLine;Football Federation &lpar;NFF&rpar; and the Nigerian Basketball Federation &lpar;NBBF&rpar;&comma; Zenith&NewLine;Bank is the sole sponsor of the Zenith Bank&sol;NFF Future Eagles Championship&comma; the&NewLine;Zenith Bank Women Basketball League &lpar;for 15 years running&rpar;&comma; the Zenith Bank&NewLine;Delta Principals’ Cup&comma; and the Zenith Bank Next Gen&NewLine;Tennis Championship&comma; amongst others&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;