By Akinwale Kasali
The Super Eagles of Nigeria will begin its quest for its fourth African Cup of Nations title on Sunday, January 14th, 2024 against Equatorial Guinea. The Team is grouped alongside host, Côte d’ Ivoire and Guinea Bissau.
The last time the National side won the AFCON Tournament was in 2013 in South Africa, where Late Stephen Okechukwu Keshi became the first indigenous Coach to lift the AFCON trophy for Nigeria.
In AFCON 1980, the victorious Green Eagles Captained by Christian Chukwu was Coached by Late Brazilian Gaffer, Otto Gloria, while the AFCON 1994 triumphant Super Eagles captained by the Mercurial Keshi were coached by Dutch Tactician, Clemens Westerhof.
In achieving the AFCON 2013 feat, Late Coach Keshi did the usual, by naming 13 Debutants into his 23-Man List, leading to criticism from different quarters, has he was enmeshed in crisis with the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, led by Amaju Pinnick.
Keshi however stood his ground and gave over Six home-based players a sense of belonging in the team.
They included; Chigozie Agbim, Godfrey Oboabona, Azubuike Egwuekwe, Sunday Mba, Reuben Gabriel and Ejike Uzoenyi.
Other debutants who made the cut were; Fegor Ogude, Juwon Oshaniwa, Nosa Igiebor, Obiora Nwankwo, Emmanuel Emenike, Victor Moses and Ahmed Musa
The team went ahead to prove bookmakers wrong as it won the tournament to silence their critics.
On the part of the Super Eagles team hoisting the nation’s flag in Côte d’ Ivoire, though the journey has been rough as injury forced two of its players, Victor Boniface Okoh and Wilfired Ndidi to pull out of the team and were swiftly replaced by Yusuf Alhassan and Terem Moffi.
When Portuguese Tactician, Coach Jose Peseiro named his 25-Man Team for the continental showpiece, criticism trailed the list, as posers were raised on the yardstick that Ahmed Musa, Francis Uzoho and Joe Aribo made the cut despite not playing regularly for their respective clubs.
Like Late Keshi, Coach Peseiro has also included Nine Debutants into his squad and they include; Ademola Lookman, Calvin Bassey, Bruno Onyemaechi, Terem Moffi, Samuel Bright Osayi, Yusuf Alhassan, Raphael Onyedika, Olorunleke Ojo and Stanley Nwabali.
Soccer fans, enthusiast and analysts are hoping that this would be another ‘De Ja Vu’, a repeat of AFCON 2013 triumph, but another issue that ha sheen raised is how the team can synergize and play as a unit, putting into consideration that awful performances in their Two 2026 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers against the Crocodiles of Lesotho and the Warriors of Zimbabwe where the Super Eagles came from behind to record a 1-1 draw in both matches.
Gbenga Atalese, a Soccer Analyst said that he isn’t expecting something different from the team as they have on several occasion failed Nigerians with the lackadaisical approach towards matches and woeful performance.
“It is still the same set of players, so I don’t want to raise my hope unnecessarily, I believ we are just going there to make up the Numbers”, he concluded.
But Babafemi Adegbite, another Sport analyst and Soccer enthusiast said that he is optimistic that the Team will perform beyond our expectations as this is an Avenue to redeem their image after failing Nigerians on several occasions with their lowly rated performance.
Coach Christian Oduma, the Enugu State Grassroots Managers Association chairman, said that he expected the Super Eagles to win the continental trophy.
Odunayo urged the team’s handlers to choose players based on current performance, form, and fitness.
“They have all it takes to win the tournament; all they need is to play as a team. The technical crew also needs to be very tactical. This is not a time to choose players based on names or previous records,” he said.
Also speaking, the chairman of the Rangers Supporters Club, Dr Uchenna Orji, said that Nigerians were expecting an excellent outing from the national team at the tournament.
“The players we are taking to AFCON cannot afford to get anything less than the trophy. They are professionals playing for clubs abroad and getting results, so we expect them to play well for Nigeria.
“They are capable of winning the trophy for Nigeria because they have the capacity and motivation to do so,” he said.
