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*Says that “preparation for Mundial 2030 must start now”
A former Super Eagles coach and captain, Sunday Oliseh, has warned that Nigeria cannot afford to lose the 2030 FIFA World Cup final.
Oliseh said if that happened, the Super Eagles could be erased from global football relevance after a 12-year hiatus from football’s main showpiece.
He stressed that if this were to happen, sponsorship would be lost and the dreams of a generation of players would be shattered.
The former Juventus player said: “If we don’t act today, we will become the next Italy of world football. Believe me, it will happen. The third consecutive failure to qualify for the World Cup will not only be a setback, but will definitely derail Nigerian football. It’s a mathematical truth.”
“A 12-year absence from the World Cup will destroy sponsorships, kill the dreams of the next generation and immediately wipe the nation off the global scouting map. It will mark the end of our relevance on the global stage.”
On the path forward to avoid another failure, Oliseh listed a roadmap.
“To save our hopes for 2030, here is the road map; we have to do a ruthless inventory of the team, we have to do a hard audit of our team. Take all the trending players right now and add four years to their age, which is their age for 2030.
“If that number exceeds 32, we need a replacement in the field today. We cannot go to war in 2030 with soldiers whose legs are already gone. We need a transition now, before it’s too late.
“We have world-class dominants like Victor Osimhen, Akpor Adams and Ademola Lookman. These guys are dismantling European defenses. They have fuel right now, but even the best fuel is useless if the engine is broken. The world respected the green and whites because we had a plan, but let’s be honest: success made us lazy, we started to believe that talent was enough, we thought we didn’t need a system.” he said Sunday
