Switzerland as underdogs beat Nigeria 1-0 in the Under 17 soccer tournament finals held in Nigeria, which concluded a few minutes ago.

They didn't have it easy! Was a good match!

I thought the refereeing was a bit off - couple of fouls went unnoticed.

So True! The Nigeria team was working hard, all the time in attack. Switzerland didn't have that much chance to attack, too bury in defence.

The Swiss goalie was good don't you think? I think he is very good.

The bugs and insects blew me away. I definitely couldn't perform under those conditions.


Congrats boys!

The Multicultural Swiss champs


Switzerland won its first world championship when it lifted the U-17 World Cup with dazzling performances whose victims included Mexico, Japan, Brazil, Germany, Italy, Colombia and host Nigeria.

Columnist Rob Hughes explains that the success came thanks to players from Switzerland's immigrant community.

"They are the sons of immigrants, in some cases asylum seekers, who today make up one-fifth of Switzerland's 7.7 million population".

More than half of the team's players have dual nationality, which has caused concern in Switzerland that they could change allegiance and play for the nations of the heritage (which is allowed under FIFA's national team eligibility rules).

Haris Seferovic, who scored the gamewinner in the final, is the son of Tunisians.

Playmaker Nassim Ben Khalifa's heritage is Bosnian.

The others are Andre Goncalves (Portugal), Ricardo Rodriguez (Chile), Kofi Nimeley (Ghana), Joel Kiassumbua (Congo), Igor Mijatovic (Serbia), Frederic Veseli (Kosovo), Maik Nakic (Croatia), Sead Hajrovic (Bosnia), Pajtim Kasami (Macedonia) and Granit Xhaka (Albania).

Ottmar Hitzfeld, coach of Switzerland's full national team, said he would "target those players for a chat" -- with the aim to convince them to continue wearing the Swiss jersey.

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