U-17 World Cup: FIFA strips Nwakali of Bronze Boot, awards prize to Chukwueze; Eagles captain may keep his trophy — FIFA

World football governing body, FIFA has written Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), admitting that it erred in awarding the Nigerian captain, Kelechi Nwakali, the bronze boot, instead of his teammate, Samuel Chukwueze, who was the right choice.

In a letter to the NFF Secretary General, Dr. Mohammed Sanusi, and signed by FIFA’s director of the football division, Mustapha Fahmy, FIFA said after reviewing its votes which saw Nwakali, clinch the bronze boot at the just concluded FIFA U-17 World Cup in Chile, it agreed making an error in judgement.

According to FIFA, the prize will now go to Samuel Chukwueze, who donned the No 8 jersey.

“We made a mistake at the closing ceremony of the FIFA U-17 World Cup Chile 2015, with the distribution of the Adidas Bronze Boot. Instead of player no. 8 of Nigeria, Samuel Chukwueze, the player Kelechi Nwakali (player no. 10 of Nigeria) received the award. However, if two or more players are still equal (after goals and assists), the player who has played fewer number of minutes will be ranked first.

“With this in mind, Adidas will send you another Bronze Boot this month, which we would kindly ask you to hand over to Samuel Chukwueze. Please, be informed that Kelechi Nwakali may keep his trophy,” the statement read.

The abstract attached to the letter showed that, while Nigerian Victor Osimhen scored 10 goals and made two assists to win the Golden Boot, Johannes Eggestein of Germany scored four goals to win the Silver Boot. Nwakali, who was voted Most Valuable Player of the Tournament and earned the Golden Ball, tied with compatriot Chukwueze for third place with three goals and three assists. However, Nwakali played more minutes (630 minutes) against Chukwueze’s 535.