Kwara United’s President Federation Cup title-winning captain Kabir Mohammed has said he hopes to get called up to the home-based Super Eagles for this year’s African Nations Championship and also offers from clubs outside Nigeria.
Mohammed led Kwara United to a first-ever President Federation Cup title thanks to a dramatic 4-3 penalty shootout with against giant killers Abakaliki FC In Saturday’s final at the Mobolaji Johnson Arena, Lagos.
The coach Tunde Sanni-led side had to win via penalties after 90 minutes of football ended goalless.
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The victory means Kwara United will represent Nigeria in the CAF Confederation Cup next season.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with Completesports.com, Mohammed said with his performance for the Ilorin-based club in the Cup competition, he hopes to get a call up and also travel abroad to further his football career.
“The list for CHAN will be out and I’m someone who always have believe that miracle can happen anytime so hopefully my name will be included,” he said. “If that happens I will be very happy to my country also an offer comes outside the country so that I can go and earn better money to help myself and my family.”
The triumphant captain described the Cup win as his biggest feat so far as a player, while admitting that they anticipated a tough contest against Abakaliki FC.
“I feel so excited because one of my biggest achievement in my senior professional career so I’m happy about it.
“We expected the game to be tough because we know the NNL (Nigeria National League) play. They are very aggressive and are fighters. So we already prepare our mind and tried to get one or two goals so that the game would be easier for us but unfortunately it didn’t happen. We created some chances, one of the chances hit the post.
“Since we did not get it in the first half then in the first 15, 20 minutes we mounted more pressure on them but nothing happened.”
Kwara United did not start the penalty shootout on a positive note as they lost their first kick while Abakaliki FC converted their first two attempts to lead 2-0.
But Kwara United fought back to overturn the deficit as they went on to score their next four kicks while their opponent missed their third and fourth attempts.
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On how his team managed to bounce back from the early Setback in the shootout, Mohammed said:”When we lost our first penalty we told our teammate to forget about it that we should just focus that they can also miss and we believed in our goalkeeper. We encouraged him to help us because he was the only one that could help us in that situation and everybody that went to play later had the confidence to score.”
On the chances of Kwara United at next season’s CAF Confederation Cup, he expressed believe the club will go far.
“Normally Kwara United don’t go to the continent and go out in the first round and we currently we have the team and I believe the management might bring in one or two players and I believe we will go far.”
Also, on what to expect from his team in the Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) next campaign:”The league is a marathon, it is different from FA Cup but we will prepare as usual and keep motivating each other and expect our fans to keep supporting us and I believe we play better than last season.”
By James Agberebi
