AFCON AND THE SUPER EAGLES  

 The Super Eagles should go all out to honour Nigeria with remarkable performance

The 34th Africa Cup of Nations (AfCON) kicked off last Saturday in Abdijan, Cote d’Ivoire with 24 participating countries. Held biannually since inception in 1957, AfCON has been used to celebrate the continent while offering a purely African content to what is universally recognised as the ‘beautiful game’. Featuring the biggest sporting showpiece on the continent, the tournament highlights how football remains a powerful and unifying force. We therefore hope that this tournament, like previous ones, will offer quality entertainment.  

The special place of AfCON in the international football calendar is quite unique. The tournament predates the Euro-Championship and is reputed for yielding the stage to some of the best players that ply their trade all over the world to exhibit their talent. On Sunday, the Super Eagles kicked off their campaign for a fourth AFCON title against Equatorial Guinea’s Nzalang Nationale with a disappointing score draw. They will confront the Elephants of Cote d’Ivoire on Thursday before the final group phase clash with the Wild Dogs of Guinea Bissau on 22^nd January.  

Nigeria first won the title as hosts in 1980 with President Shehu Shagari in the VIP stand to receive the trophy inside the National Stadium in Lagos. Some 14 years later, the late Stephen Keshi led the Super Eagles to Tunisia ’94 to lift the trophy. The same Keshi would later emulate Mahmoud El-Gohary of Egypt as the second player to also win the tournament as player and coach in 2013 in South Africa. El-Gohary won as player in 1959 and as a coach in 1998 to enter history books as the first to attain such a feat. 

It is over a decade now that the Super Eagles last triumphed in this African football showpiece. Between then and now, what we have witnessed, under series of European managers and a handful of indigenous coaches, is a national team lacking direction, and struggling to regain its past glory. At the last edition hosted by Cameroon two years ago, the Super Eagles crashed out in the second round despite so much promise from a team brimming with some of the best talents on the continent. 

The Super Eagles’ poor run in the last edition was followed by crashing out of qualification for the Qatar World Cup held last December. Therefore, Portuguese handler, Jose Santos Peseiro knows that nothing short of the trophy will be good enough from Cote d’Ivoire. Unfortunately, his players have not had enough time to blend and plan strategy to outwit opponents in the group phase. The seven-day training experience in Abu Dhabi has not really given the players enough time to jell as a team. Peseiro now has the additional burden of grappling with injury to star players like Taiwo Awoniyi, Wilfred Ndidi, Victor Boniface and now Sadiq Umar—all ruled out from the tournament. Although some last-minute replacements have been made for the injured players, Peseiro has his job cut out for him as Nigerians remain hopeful that the Super Eagles can go all the way to the final and return home with the trophy. They did it in 2013 when nobody gave them any chance. They can do it again.   

Meanwhile, it is noteworthy that the Minister of Sports Development, John Owan Enoh has done all the necessary things for Nigeria’s participation in this edition. It is a departure from the past when players and federation officials fought over bonuses and allowances. This new norm allows handlers and officials to do their bit without dissipating energies over money. With that, the players must understand that the greatest honour is to defend their national flag on behalf of millions of compatriots.  

We wish the Super Eagles of Nigeria the best in Cote d’Ivoire.