Nigeria won the Under-17 World Cup final with a 3-0 win over Spain on penalties after a thrilling end-to-end match ended 0-0 after extra time. Nigeria's hero was goalkeeper Oladele Ajiboye who saved two penalties in the shootout as Nigeria won the tournament for the third time after successes in China in 1985 and Japan in 1993.
Matthew Edile, Daniel Joshua, and Ganiyu Oseni all scored for Nigeria while Asier Illaramendi missed for Spain and Fran Merida, who is on Arsenal's books, and Iago, who is with Barcelona, saw their penalties saved. Both sides hit the bar late on as they searched for the breakthrough, which, despite more than 30 goal attempts from both sides, came only in the shootout.
Earlier, Germany beat Ghana 2-1 in the third-place playoff with the German winner coming in stoppage time from Kaiserslautern youngster Alexander Esswein.
Germany took the lead after 17 minutes through skipper Toni Kroos of Bayern Munich, who won the Golden Ball as the tournament's best player, while Ransford Osei equalised for Ghana after 67 minutes. Macauley Chrisantus of Nigeria won the Golden Shoe as the tournament's top scorer with seven goals.