Ademola Lookman has been named in the Confederation of African Football, CAF, group stage Best X1 of the ongoing 2025 Africa Cup of Nations, reports Completesports.com.
Lookman has been one of the top performers in the competition.
The Nigerian winger registered two goals, and two assists in two appearances in the group stage.
The Atalanta winger was also named Man of the Match in the Super Eagles’ second group game against the Carthage Eagles of Tunisia.
Egypt’s Mohamed El Shenawy earned his place in goal.
Noussair Mazraoui (Morocco), Abdi (Tunisia), Edmund Tapsoba (Burkina Faso), and Axel Tuanzebe (DR Congo) made the back four.
Lookman is joined in midfield by Cameroon’s Carlos Baleba, and Morocco star Brahim Diaz.
The trio of Sadio Mané (Senegal), Amad Diallo (Ivory Coast) and Riyad Mahrez (Algeria) made the top three in attack.
Super Eagles head coach, Eric Chelle was named the group stage best coach.
By Adeboye Amosu
26 Comments
Eric Chelle well deserved and best Africa coach loading bcos this AFCON is coming home.
Congratulations to Eric Chelle and Lookman. Worthy ambassadors you are.
The coach’s critics are silent for now. They won’t acknowledge when he does well, but their leprous fingers are the first on the keyboard when the results aren’t too good.
Toxic, bitter people.
Dr drey won’t talk now. But will talk if their is a slip.
Well drey is still a good analyst anyway. He only needs to forget rohr completely (laugh)
You forgot he is just an ordinary Malian.
He qualified the team to the next round with a game to spare but they quickly remind us what happened in 2021 just to make his achievement look ordinary but forgot we lost that match due to iwobi red card.
But this pretender you are praising to the highest heavens lost to a 10 man CIV despite having a goal and a man advantage for 70….yes SEVENTY SOLID MINUTES…..Lmaoo
So shove that your Iwobi got a red card excuse down the sewers. Good coaches still win with 10 men.
Even with 11 men Tunisia was already leading your “2021 best coach of the group stage” before iwobi got sent off.
We are now in the knockout stage of the tournament where the real Afcon begins…..11 Osimhens wouldn’t get anywhere near the trophy with Chelle on the bench.
Know that and know peace.
Let our pretender enjoy his small win in peace biko. 24 coaches, 72 matches played, he got nominated among the best and won it, that’s an achievement no matter how small okay.
Let him celebrate his small win while the big one is on the way. Relax we will all witness it.
Have you ever seen any student being given best continuous assessment award before…..??
Or any 800m runner being given the a medal for winning the first lap of the race…?
Yea, he should celebrate his small win….after all he’s been only ever able to defeat small teams and only huff and puff against average ones…. LMAOoo
Let DeSabre or Regragui or Petkovic get hold of him first….. LMAOoo, it’s dry ice you and your fellow lapdogs will pour on his head when they are done with him.
Interesting how Lookman was selected in midfield. I too felt shone like a million Christmas pyrotechnics in the midfield behind Osihmen and Akor against Tunisia.
CAF, in their selection, appear to see Lookman as the only standout performer for Nigeria. In 2024, Peseiro’s brand of football was too bland for any of our players to make the list. In 2022, Ekong and Simon made the list.
Congratulations to Lookman and thanks to Chelle as his brand of football gave birth to our representation in this line-up, something Eguavoen also achieved, but Peseiro didn’t – CAF loves beautiful football, so do the fans.
Rohr’s brand of football in 2019 was borderline boring, so he too failed to raise enough excitement for any Nigerian to make the list of best IX. At least, he won a medal for Nigeria; coincidentally, so did Peseiro.
Wait o! Do you want to tell me that we have won medals whenever we didn’t have a player in the Best XI of the group stages?
Damn it!
Ah! Please, don’t bring dejavu oh lol.
We can break the hoodoo. Eguavoen was “best coach” in 2021 and covid ravaged Tunisia ended our dream in round of 16.
Make we take am one game at a time.
Chelle has honestly been solid thus far
Eric Chelle truly deserve the award. For the first time, the super eagles is playing like a team. Nigeria is now scoring from set pieces. This was never the case before Eric Chelle took over as the coach. Nigeria is now also playing a fast and pressing style of soccer. Eric Chelle has also brought unity to the team and his man management is second to none. Such a quiet achiever! Unlike previous Nigerian baby coaches that did their coaching on the pages of newspaper, always fighting with the players and always in the news for all the wrong reasons. I hope they learn from the humble Eric Chelle and stop engaging in a show of superiority with their players. God bless you, Eric Chelle, for all that you do. You’re the best! Under you, the super eagles now have a playing identity.
In Chelle’s own words “We have won nothing yet”. Be humble and aim high.
Having said that his team has done quite admirably during the group stage. He should keep it up.
I watched the Nigeria-Tunisia post-match conference, and towards the end of the conference, Chelle questioned why all the journalists kept hammering on the fact that Nigeria almost lost a 3-0 lead and what mistakes were made.
He said he was surprised no one praised the team for its performance and taking a commanding 3 -0 lead against a major team like Tunisia. The guy is a silent and humble hard worker.
Chelle has done well. Heaven bless him.
We now beg NFF ONIGBESE to please pay the man his salary. With all the work Chelle is doing and the huge expectations, it’s unbelievable that he is being owed. Pay the man!
FG have cleared the debt, I read. They also released 3bn for the campaign.Chelle earned $20k each for the 3 wins while the players got $10k each.
NFF even said he’d been paid for January.
So, if the team falters which we don’t hope for, the whole blame will be the players and coaches.
NFF even succumbed to paying them $30k from the round of 16 in a “forced” meeting that increases as the team progresses – people wey no qualify for world cup oh.
Just to make them “happy”.
Is all this largesse even necessary? I’m yet to hear of any soccer power nation make all this promises or given lands to players for winning what they’ve already been paid for, not sure if our yearly budget is above $500b, Germany , France, England and the rest soccer nation with trillion $ yearly budget dnt waste it like this.
We do things in a weird way, all this promises is unnecessary now, just pay the players and coaches what you guys agreed on time. The country is bleeding in all sectors.
Hehehehe…..someone should please remind me where we ended with our ex best coach of the group stages……. LMAOooo
I really don’t know it if illiteracy, ignorance or lack of exposure.
When has “coach of the group stage” of a tournament becomes an affirmation class or competence…..???
The last coach of the group stages got booted out by Tunisia’s team C coached by their 2nd assistant coach……and subsequently got booted out of the World Cup by the worst Ghanaian team in 4 centuries coached by their erstwhile assistant coach….. LMAOooo
Even the man whose feet they are kissing said “We have not won anything yet”
I’ve watched too many tournaments to know that a well selected Nigerian team can plough it’s way through group stages of most tournaments just by sheer individual quality. The knockouts where games are won from the bench is where the true abilities of our coaches are often tested.
To celebrate a man who has failed flawlessly 4 times when his true abilities were tested is the greatest tragedy to befall Nigerian football.
Malians will currently be laughing at Nigerians from a distance….. LMAOooo
This man has been maligned for winning games. I see an unsupported emotional blackmail against him. NFF has made their choice of picking him, even if not to the satisfaction of all fans. In any case, fans do not sign the checks of coaches. They can only mount pressure on NFF, so they give us the quality of coaches we deserve.
I think focusing on Eric Chelle is narrow-minded. Did he appoint himself?
If the Malians laugh at a coach who has won three straight games, it would be a maniacal laugh, and their collective brains should be biopsied for some strange viruses distorting their personality from reality.
I am loving Eric’s game.
He is learning on the job.
He will beat Mozambique.
We will dvance!
…..and what medal have you won for winning 3 straight games…..???
‘Best coach of the group stage’ medal abi…. Lmaoo.
I love the bravado with which you declared that chelle will defeat Mozambique……I almost thought you would add “…and he will go on to win this trophy…”. I am happy reality checked you there.
Of course where is Mozambique in FIFA rankings again……102.!!!
O yea…that has been his specialty so far. No disrespect, but Bosso will also defeat Mozambique with 2 former AFOTYs, Iwobi and all the other talents in the team.
I too can bet my life on Chelle defeating a team ranked below 90 on the FIFA ranking. Declaring that the earth is not flat is no big deal. So let’s just enjoy this honeymoon while it lasts.
After (if) he defeats No 102, No 11, No 34, No 56 await us subsequently. That is when you all will know why Malians are laughing at you and your overpaid coach from a distance….Lmaoo
All I see in your ranting is hatred and no objectivity. You sure don’t know more than the CAF Technical team that selected him!
I am aghast at the downward transformation of someone I once admired. I thought this guy, with all his learning, knows simple things like “Circle of influence.” For instance, much as you hate the people senselessly killing themselves in Europe, can you forcibly order them to stop or remove them from Office? Obviously no. Those actions lie outside your circle of influence. It’s the same with NFF. It’s within their powers to get us a coach. They’ve made their choice. All fans should live with it. No need to attach the choice of NFF.
No need to draw elastic/ absurd examples that high school students can even punch down. Is FIFA ranking absolute? If so, why waste time and other resources on organising AFCON? A simple ceremony by CAF and handing over the medal to Senegal should be enough.
The arguments are becoming juvenile. Let me throw out a rough statisti out there. Almost 95% of the inhabitants of ALL countries have rubbish ideas. Do we really need someone to teach others these retrogressive ideas? Better to keep quiet with them.
I would like to read about technical tips to Chelle or Nwabali or Osimhen or Paul Longus on how to defeat Mozambique.
I hope we beat them, but ranking above them on the FIFA scale means nothing. Nothing.
Imagine saying so much, yet saying nothing.
You can as well just go to blazes with your admiration if simple glaring truths hurt you this badly…!!!
i want to remind u guy that history is always against Nigeria any time we performed marvelously very well with 9maximum point in our kitten, we don’t get to pass quarter stage. as history have it, out of four previous time we performed well with 9points gathered. na only once we made it pass quarter final. that was in 1980 nations cup. so what u guys should worried is the history that is against Nigeria in that manner.
God have mercy. See how Ref just rob Tanzania of a clear penalty against Morocco. Any country dat faces Morocco should be ready to be robbed if they don’t beat dem with actual goals as the refs are on dua side. The malian ref should neva be allowed to ref any match, he was very bad. Although Morocco was the better team and would still have maybe gone on to win d match even with d penalty but the ref has made d match more about himself tgan the players. This ref is useless to be frank, very dusgusting decision.
A whole Brazil wanted to play Nigeria, the Brazilian coach singles out Iwobi as the man they need to mark out of the game to be able to clip the wings of the SE.
And some bunch of god knows what sort of human beings will come here and say Iwobi has no business in the SE.
Yo ba furo awon babanla yi. E ni sorire