Kaizer Chiefs coach Cedric Kaze believes striker Etiosa Ighodaro’s aerial prowess is playing a key factor for the team in the CAF Confederation Cup.
Recall that the Nigerian forward netted a goal as Kaizer Chiefs booked their spot in the group stages of the competition after defeating AS Simba 3-1 on aggregate.
Reacting after the game, Kaze, in a chat with the club’s website, stated that Ighodaro’s ability to score goals with his head is helping the team.
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“We wanted to try as well to get the front combination to get players who can give that extra pass, players who can deliver on set-pieces, players as well who can shoot.
“To have a player like Ighodaro in the box that is a striker that is physical in the air, it helps us as well. As well the speed of Lilepo you have different options,” the Burundian added.
CAF has set 3 November 2025 as the date for the CAF Champions League and CAF Confederation Cup group stage draw, with Johannesburg confirmed as the host city.
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The best of Nigerian footballers are playing in European Leagues; The fairly average ones like Ighodaro, and even Nigerian no 1 goal keeper, Nwabali, plays in the South African league; others are in Tunisian, Egyptian and even Tanzanian clubs- leaving the below average ones (rejects by the outside better funded clubs) in the Nigerian league and some brain-dead, hate-filled “Dr” cannot see the link between money and club performance- reason for the gulf in class between Mamelodi Sundowns Thrashing of the best of Nigeria club representative- Remo Stars.
Let’s even not go far and use the two themes and why cash matters in comparative quality and performance. First Mamelodi’s Coach is a top-flight Portuguese who has coached Nantes of France and several top European clubs including Porto. No Club in Nigeria can dream of hiring Miguel Cardoso because their annual budgets can’t afford his wages; They have 3 Brazillians- 2 midfielders and the Striker who scored one of the 2 goals against Remo in the return leg in SA and a top Tunisian or Algerian player in its Payroll. Now tell me which Nigerian club can afford all these- and the moron says money don’t matter.
I reiterate that our Grassroot training that produced probably the best Striker in the world currently- Victor Osimhen; the likes of Victor Boniface, Chukwueze, Iheanacho and recently Benejamin Frederick’s etal- who left the teetering Nigerian leagues before they turned 18, is not the issue but largely lack of funds (dollar equivalents).
In the 80’s, 90s and early 2000 when our Naira had relative value, decent Nigerian players had no reasons to look for greener pastures in foreign clubs as those who remained within had relatively decent wages to cope with the cost of living and those were the last times Nigerian teams won the CAF CL (or equivalents)you can also see that since those golden era, Nigerian clubs have been unable to be competitive in the African continent.
On the other hand our National teams have faired better because the bulk, if not 100% of the NT members (men and Women), are those who either moved to better financed clubs in Europe or are born in those countries with the cash for top-rate football infrastructure and development- and you can see, if you are not blinded by negativity, that the SE and Super Falcon are competitive enough in Africa, the latter the Current Afcon champions.
A Mamelodi Sundown of SA or Wydad Athletics Club of Morroco can buy the whole NFPL teams twice, if they want and therefore have the cash to buy the best players and Coaches in Africa and beyond; provide decent training facilities and equipments and have quality training pitches to make them more competitive than any team in Nigeria or even Ghana and mainly the reason Wydad Athletics beat Asante Kotoko 6-1 aggregate home and away few days ago.
Hahahahaha…….go and beat up Segun Odegbami for being unpatriotic and agreeing with Dr.Drey
If was you who claimed SA league players are not better than NPFL players…..It’s the same you who has come here to say only below average players are in the NPFL.
Its a miracle you’ve survived this long in your lifetime without common sense.
I asked you, when Kano Pillars dumped Al Ahly of Egypt out of the CAF in 2011 or thereabout, were they earning more than Al Ahly players…..???
When Enyimba won back to back CAF CLs defeating the likes of Esperance, Etoile, Ismaili etc on their way to both trophies, where they also earing more money than players in these teams…? Did they have European coaches….???
The Congolese team that eliminated the 2nd SA club Orlando Pirates from the CAF CL, I guess they earn more money than Pirates players abi.
The Kenyan team that eliminated Etoile du Sahel of Tunisia must also be earning 10 times more than their tunisian counterparts.
SA league players are not better than NPFL players, they just have more money……..LAMOooo…..I guess it was money they were splashing on the pitch when they cremated the champions of your ragtag league 7-1 on aggregate. Money is the reason your local players don’t know when to pass and when to shoot, money is the reason they don’t know when to make a run and when to wait, money is the reason they do not know when to make the man and when to mark the space. Your brain obviously needs to be soaked in red oil for 90 days.
It’s the same way you claimed SA coaches are not better than Nigerian coaches; they just have more money. I guess it is money they share with the players of the teams they are coaching across the continent, and not educated tactical and technical data and information. Or maybe it was their bank accounts they tendered during interviews that made them get coaching jobs outside their country and perform admirably well on their jobs.
I asked you to list just 4 Nigerian coaches currently coaching outside Nigeria, but you disappeared like fart in a hurricane, because simple FACTUAL tasks like those and answering questions about how much money NPFL players were earning comparative to those of their peers on the continent at the time when we were ever present in the group stages of CAF competitions even when only 8 teams get to the groups unlike now that 16 teams make up the group stages.
I guess the likes of Victor Osimhen, Victor Boniface, Chukwueze, Iheanacho, and Benjamin Frederick left the shores of Nigeria and went straight into the 1st team of European clubs like the likes of Finidi, Ijeh, Taye Taiwo and Ahmed Musa, right…..?? They didn’t spend 2-3 years under educated coaches in Europe learning how football is meant to be played at the highest levels.
I guess it was money that gave the likes of Victor Osimhen, Victor Boniface, Chukwueze, Iheanacho, and Benjamin Frederick the intrinsic talents they have that got them into Europe in the first instance. Once again, It’s a miracle you’ve survived this long in your lifetime without common sense.
You just wrote a whole bunch of shit, shooting yourself in the foot, thinking you are defending yourself……..LMAOOooo. You are the one who said SA league players are not better than NPFL players, yet you are still the one giving us cock and bull stories of how our league used to produce serial continental champions in the 90s, as if it was the highest paying league in Africa as at then. As if players were not leaving our league in the 90s to play for more money in Egypt, Tunisia, South Africa, and other richer and more professional leagues across the continent, without turning our league teams into teams that cannot cross the preliminary rounds of continental competitions. Common sense is indeed not common..
Continue biting trees all over the place, ehn. Let us know when you are ready to stop fooling yourself with your fake patriotism. Even the defenders of local players and coaches have finally seen the light and aligned accordingly with all Dr.Drey has been echoing for nearly half a decade now. But empty barrels make the loudest noise…..that is why you are still here clanging loudly like EC Arinze’s cymbals
Well said, Your analysis on point