Nigeria U17 team coach follows in Eddie Howe's footsteps

Nigeria U17 team coach follows in Eddie Howe's footsteps

70 years old former Manchester United's Chief Scout David Hobson, has taken keen interest in Nigerian U17 team Scout/ Assistant coach, Bunmi Haruna.

Hudson, who scouted for Man Utd for 13 years, met Haruna during his first and only visit to Africa late 2022. After sharing ideas with the young coach, he promised to help him improve his coaching skills by sponsoring him for the PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL SCOUTS ASSOCIATION,PFSA, scouting courses.

Three months on, Haruna, a journalist turn coach, has completed the PFSA Introduction Into Football Scouting (2022) and PFSA Level 1 Talent Identification In Football courses which were sponsored by Hudson.

"I'm extremely grateful to David and his team for the opportunity given to me.

"It has improved me as a coach/scout and I intend to take more of the courses online.

"When you look at big name managers and coaches like Eddie Howe (Newcastle FC) Ryan Giggs, Timons Paul (Bayern Munich) they all went through these classes.

“I wish to continue to take as many as possible courses on offer by the PFSA, though it is going to be financially demanding,” Haruna said.

Haruna, a CAF B licensed coach, already has two WAFU-B U17 championship gold medals (2022 & 2018), one AFCON U17 Bronze medal (2019) and FIFA U17 World Cup experience.

He is also admired for understudying some of the best Nigeria youth team coaches like, Manu Garba, Emmanuel Amunike, Nduka Ugbade, Ahmed Dankoli and Haruna Ilerika.