Nigerian football legend, Nwankwo Kanu, is upbeat that the Super Eagles can win the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations which holds in Cameroun next year only if the coach, Gernot Rohr, pushes the team to compete with it’s full potential, Completesports.com reports.
Kanu however warned those who are expecting the Super Eagles to reach the semifinals of the 2022 FIFA World Cup to desist from making such tall dream as that will put an unnecessary pressure on the players and their coaches, adding that achieving big goals takes a gradual process.
“Reaching the World Cup semifinals is a tall order for the Super Eagles for now. It will be putting a huge pressure on the team which on the long run may negatively affect their output. I think emphasis should be on winning the next AFCON in Cameroun. That is achievable with some more push from the coaches,” Kanu who won the African Footballer of The Year award in 1996 and 1999 stated.
Also Read: ‘Osimhen Has Potential To Win Next African Footballer Of The Year Award’ –Kanu
“I believe that the current crop of Super Eagles can achieve more than what the class of 1994 and ,1996 did. With the chunk of players scattered in clubs Europe, this present Eagles can surpass with we did if they keep on working hard and all we owe them is support and encouragement. They will keep on flying high.”
Kanu continued: “These Eagles can achieve so much if they get the appropriate push from the coaching crew of the team. We have players who are doing very well in various leagues in Europe, and I believe if the coaches play the right players in their roles, they would win trophies for Nigeria”
From Richard Jideaka, Abuja
11 Comments
The sound of a true legend. God bless you for making us proud, KANU PAPILO NWANKWO.
The only way for Nigeria to win the African Cup of Nations is to avoid meeting Algeria. Belmadi na beast.
Papilo well said so let the gradual improvement begin and let there be transparency in players invitation. We need more defensive options and talented goalkeeper because the present set of goal keepers are not what we are used to.
And I don’t think anyone is tipping Rohr to reach quarter final talkless of semis, I don’t know where such hope is coming from. NFF should work towards having Herve Renard because he is one of the very few affordable coaches who understands African Football and can go toe to toe with any coach in the world with the abundance of talents we have scattered around the world. I wish to witness this happening in future. See what he is doing for small Saudi Arabia, watching their possession based football and golazos, if anyone is doubting go and check Saudis highlight. Time will tell!
Mehn!!!! You just spoke my mind. I’ve been wishing and hoping Herve Renard will coach the SE one day. That guy is good.
The only way for Nigeria to Afrco. Cup in Cameroon next year is to play with defensive and pressing ,combative mentality that means Rhor must train and instruct his players to defend fristly then attackt; if Super Eagles do this task properly they can win this cup or this trophy,because they have quality forwrds who can score goals in any time…
Hahahahhaha….shame to senseless people. Kanu must be a “…backward thinking average goalsetter that left ‘African’ to remain under achievers…”, Papilo must be a “…weak minded regressive charlatan spreading negativity and promoting their failures upon everyone….” so says a useless he-goat who biggest achievement in life is having a forex account.
Day dreaming drunkard wants to win the world cup with no blueprint, infrastructure or developmental foundation currently on ground. A daft idiot wants to win the world cup with coaches who failed to qualify for ordinary AFCON and Herve Renhard whose last 2 assignments with a star-studded morocco ended in disaster (knocked out of the World cup by Iran and out of AFCON by Benin). Even as awful as Rohr can be, he wouldnt lose to Iran or Benin under must-win circumstances. Day dreaming scavenger wants to employ a coach who earns upwards of $100,000 per month when the coach who earns less than half of that amount per month gets owed for 6-7 months on the average every damn year.
King Kanu, you are welcome to the club of “weak-minded progressives”. Thank you for joining us.
Long term day-dreaming drunkards can continue to fantasize about building castles untop of nothing, just suspended castles in the air…..LMAOOoooo.
are you alright? if you must relate, don’t be insultive, your comments are so sad. Rubbish.
We get players,nah Coach we no get…..
Go apply for the coaching job! Eran..
Pappillo’s opinion is filled with lots of intelligence that only people with residual knowledge will be able to inteerprete with diligence.
I have always known that the country is currently blessed with the best set of players the SE have ever had but the present coaching crew lacks the capacity to create the right competitive atmosphere and tactics to maximize the available potentials.
Winning the next AFCON is a decent target for the current crew. We can discuss about WC after AFCON. Because in my honest estimation, we have the players but our technical bench does not have the ingredients to win ANC trophy. Imagine Nigeria vs Senegal/CIV/Morrocco/Algeria at knockout stage of ANC under GR.
In terms of players quality, SE is at par with these teams but they have an obvious edge in terms of selection and pattern of play.