Fifteen-year-old Farouk Yusuf scored ten goals and carted home the Most Valuable Player award but it wasn’t enough to stop Nigeria’s cadet handball team from slipping to a third straight defeat at the IHF World Youth Championship inside the Boris Trajkovski Arena, Skopje, North Macedonia. 

Nigeria’s loss came against Denmark who made light work of Emeka Nnamani’s side in a 35-22 victory.

The Danes – rated number three by the IHF at U19 level – were clearly superior to their Nigerian counterparts who were making their debut in the tournament and it showed, especially in a one-sided first half in which Nigeria struggled to find their feet, taking until the 12th minute to score by which time they were already seven goals down and trailed 8-21 to Denmark at the break. 

Denmark took their foot off the pedal in the second half as they gave minutes to fringe players and although both teams scored fourteen goals apiece in the half the damage had already been done in the first half and Denmark claimed an easy victory at the end.

Nigeria, who are last in their group after losing all three of their matches next face Japan on Sunday by 6:30 pm.