What next after the reverse of the World Cup qualification?

‘Eagle7’ landed a few days ago in air peace, the pride of Nigeria and the new ‘king of African aviation’.

My vacation were excellent. My family had conspired to send me for a well -earned vacation. This is how, flying with style, I spent two repair weeks in the United Kingdom. I was gagged, celebrated and ‘completely’ pampered ‘by my family and friends.

Nigeria’s irresistible pull

There is something in Nigeria that challenges logic. While there is an avalanche of economic emigrants who leave the country to the slightest opportunity and any cost, we are those of us who cannot remain out of the country for a long period, unable to resist the impulse to return quickly, despite the social, political and economic difficulties on earth and the infinite struggles that have been the reality of our daily lives for decades!

Nigeria could have been one of the best countries in the world, but it is not. However, we insist that there is no place on the planet such as home, ‘warts and everything. There are none.

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The country continues to experience life to the fullest: the good, the bad and the ugly!

Revitalized and return to the football talk

I thank everyone who sent me messages of good will, and for understanding why I had to miss these pages for a while. The good news is that I am back, revitalized and ready to fly again.

My return coincided with the frenzy of the World Cup classification football matches in Africa.

Supervolates Super Eagles

The match between the Super Eagles and Bafana Bafana dominated sports conversations. The Nigerians were feeding on expectations based on unrealistic hope, although they knew that reality painted a totally different image.

What Nigerian does not know that the Super Eagles were overvalued and on spoiled? They had not been impressive and convincing in their performances for more than a decade while changing trainers such as baby diapers, and massaging the egos of the players who could not correspond to great performances in the field.

A false celebration in AFCON 2024

The country was so hungry for success that when the Super Eagles managed to reach the final of the African Cup of Nations in January 2024, and lost, the country had an orgasm, celebrating and rewarding the team as if they had won the World Cup.

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Since then, the country had paid for this apparent displacement, its football remaining stagnant, not climbing above that plateau, and struggling to justify a celebration that can now be considered premature.

The stagnant struggles of Super Eagles

Since then, the Eagles have become guinea birds flying alone in stops and start short, from one match to another, at home and outside, presenting average performances and making the Nigerians delight in the prayers for a simple victory.

This is the giant of African football at the same time, in a search for a World Cup ticket with a new format that offers the largest number of teams to qualify in Africa, with Nigeria in the easiest group!

See Super Eagles from the town of Wasimi

Back from my vacation a few days ago, I chose not to go to Bloemfontein for the World Cup match against South Africa. I felt that I was going to require a miracle to get unharmed from that battle. Then, I joined football fans at the Eagle7 Bamboo Garden in my little town, Wasimi, wishing the Eagles to achieve a miracle and defeat the South Africans.

They ran incessantly and fought well during the 90 minutes. Although they created very few opportunities, they were worth admitting their own goal at the beginning of the game.

In the end, Nigeria did not deserve a victory and the score (1-1) reflected the actions of both teams in the game played on a very bad grass as part of the strategy of the South Africans.

The game ended as it did, and Nigeria’s possibilities still qualify for the WC 2026 have become even more difficult, easier than an elephant pass through the eye of a needle. “

Super Eagles: Now, what follows?

A handful of impenitent optimists are still singing the hopeful song and using computers to calculate the scarce possibilities of Nigeria qualification.

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The majority of Nigerians, in the background, have renounced hope and are already moving through the blood of those who consider responsible for this unacceptable state of things.

Time for a Forensic Audit of Nigerian football

It is true that there are two more games to go, but it would be nonsense to expect the destination that has already been sealed to be altered when the conditions around the team have not changed.

What should happen now is a forensic audit of Nigerian football. The question of who will carry out this necessary task will now become the poser that must be answered sincerely.

The soccer administration buttons in Nigeria must be restored because that is where everything in the development of football is anchored.

The need for a football revolution

The country cannot continue stepping on the same arid road and hopes to end in a forest of lush trees.

While the reins of power remain in the hands of the same people who are in charge and their acquiescence is necessary for any change to occur, there is no hope of change.

There must be a deliberate tumultuous revolution expelled under the supervision of an independent referee to return Nigerian football to the track of genuine progress and development.

New hope: emerging young talents

So, while expecting to see what happens with the last series of games in the group, there are some points of light that explode through the dark clouds of Nigerian football.

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The 20 -year -old debutant Benjamin Frederick played brilliantly and safely in the game against Rwanda. There was no justification for having kept him in the bank in the next game for a aging of William Troost-Ekong. Now we know better. Benjamin is the revelation of the year for me.

There are some others on the horizon, not contaminated by the “failure” of the current generation, sprouting around the European football circuit.

Ascent stars for Super Eagles abroad

There is David Odog. I wrote about him about a year ago. He was 18 years old at that time and was an integral part of the German winning team in the last world championship of children under 17. Three weeks ago, it was signed by Italian giants, AC Milan. He is so good. Nigeria has the opportunity to attract him to play for the Super Eagles.

His combination with Benjamin Frederick will be, in my opinion, the best pairing in the center of any defense in Africa during the next decade.

I saw the video of a young Nigerian player in the Scottish or Irish league. I did not capture his name (but I will discover it because I still have the clip).

He can be the creative genius that the Super Eagles have lacked them since the departure of Jay-Jay Okocha.

The limitations of players at home

Home -based players cannot form the backbone of the new Super Eagles for obvious reasons. The national game is simply not technically good enough for now, despite the entire hype, discover, develop and offer players ready to play at the Super Eagles level.

Convert the failure of Super Eagles at the time

Finally, I refuse to be consumed by the current ‘disappointment’ by the Super Eagles. In my humble understanding of how the universe works, I will not curse the ‘darkness’. The diamond and the gold are not found in the streets but in ‘Injured dark caves’.

We must use the current “failure” as a lesson to avoid shapeing a new path for Nigerian football and for a new super eagles, in the future.