The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has condemned in its entirety the cyber attacks on Super Eagles’ midfielder Alex Iwobi, saying the virulent attacks on the player are uncalled-for given his commitment and dedication to duty for homeland over the years.
“Alex Iwobi does not deserve these attacks. He has a record of utmost dedication to duty and a remarkable attitude of giving his all on international duty. We cannot suddenly forget the great moments he has made on duty for Nigeria, like scoring that goal against Zambia in Uyo that qualified Nigeria to the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia.
“We are talking about someone who is actually the seventh most-capped Nigerian footballer in history. With 76 caps, Alex Iwobi has nothing to prove to anyone about his patriotic fervour and dedication to duty for Nigeria. Please let us show him love and not hatred,” NFF Director of Communications, Ademola Olajire appealed on Tuesday.
Iwobi is behind only Ahmed Musa, Vincent Enyeama, Joseph Yobo, John Mikel Obi, Nwankwo Kanu and Mudashiru Babatunde Lawal (of blessed memory) in the record of most caps for Nigeria, and has travelled to different countries and continents to defend the green-white-green for about eight years now.
He has featured for Nigeria at the FIFA World Cup finals in Russia in 2018 and the Africa Cup of Nations in 2019 (Egypt), 2021 (Cameroon) and Cõte d’Ivoire (2023).
3 Comments
Use your common sense if you have any –
Nobody is attacking him for his patriotism..not at all in fact only a blind man will deny that he has been very patriotic indeed, what they are attacking him for (And I definitely do not support that kind of appalling behaviour in any way shape or form)- However what they are attacking him for is his lack of tackling or tracking back in games! How Oh How can the Super Eagles Ever win and take top position if someone charged with and given a very crucial role in the team consistently falls short? It is not as if even he would not understand that as a midfielder, not to mention a creative midfielder, you must be prepared to create IE take on the opposition and goes past 1 or 2 and then give intelligent “killer” passes to the forwards to advance on goal and hopefully score them, but to be given that role and to not only not track back, never put in A SINGLE TACKLE and always shy away from putting up ANY RESISTANCE to the opposition is akin to a suicide move and if that is his best then we might as well not have him in the team at all – The opposition already know this and always take the SE on knowing that with Iwobi in the middle all they have to do is build a strong and forwardly mobile midfield and Nigeria are toast!
Now having said all that – I would very strongly still condemn any attacks on Iwobi and say to you all fair and square, why shoot the messenger?? The problem lies really with the man who appoints Iwobi to man that role – Now before anyone runs off and starts attacking that man – Peseiro, that is not what I am advocating – there are is more than one way to skin a cat – we have a few options, either we try and continue with Peseiro and ask him what is views on Iwobi’s game is to gauge where his head is at, because if he says that he has not noticed this glaring weakness in the team then he definitely does not deserve to be the coach – at that stage we could then seriously considering getting an upgrade and if I am to offer a suggestion I would immediately offer up 2 names Hervé Renard or Mosimane and in that order – these are just two off the top – there are many able candidates and I don’t think Amunike or any of the Nigerians mentioned on these pages are suitable or able at all – If we’re looking at Nigerians, there are far better candidates in Mike Emenalo, Shola Ameobi and a few others as well – or we could tell him in no uncertain fashion that he cannot not/must not play Iwobi in that role again and furthermore only have him in the team as an option from the bench and not somebody to put the hopes of over 200 million Nigerians on, tell him to go and find a capable replacement, after all that is a chief part of a coach/manager’s role which he gets a good wage for – Look at the top managers in the world and you’ll see that they are always improving the team’s personnel and are generally fluid with tactics deployment and can read games and change tactics even mid game – it’s easier said than done but it’s ultimately not rocket science
Finally – nobody should feel sorry for Iwobi for getting dropped and permanently relegated to the subs bench for so many reasons – how many should I list? Is it the fact that he 100% already knows this fact -very evident in his career trajectory to date, he has been in some of the best teams in the world but has constantly been moved on and if you ask any of the fans of any the teams he has played for they will tell you the same thing and he is certainly not new to the experience of being trolled for his lightweight contribution to various different midfields he has played in, so he should almost expect it if he does not change and start doing more and producing more opposition and helping out the teams he is lucky to play for, secondly he is not a child and must apply football intelligence and common sense to his game, his has been playing for long enough already to know these things unless he simply does not have it in him or does not have the capacity to adapt and improve and cut out what is so glaringly wrong in his game and finally, he is not a poor boy now is he?? Even at this age a person like him can decide to resign and go into any kind of business , the level of riches he has already attained, he can NEVER be a poor man again in his life so there are very many scenarios and solutions to these issues
I could go on and on but please stop the online trolling and attacks on Iwobi or any other of our players or athletes – if they’re not pulling their weights let the people responsible for selecting them be very quick to do the needful and always upgrade by introducing better replacements..No long thing as my people would say. Simples
My take is that, in that final match, iwobi wasn’t at fault, Ekong didn’t do enough to protect Iwabili for the first goal while Ina was the culprit for the second goal. So stop bullying that guy
Of course he was – Why do you think all these trolls are trolling him?? Is Zaidu not there? Did Chukwueze not come on and add nothing? So ask yourself why is it only Iwobi who is being trolled?? There is never smoke without fire in this life. Also why did Peseiro sub him off at half time? and also did so in the game before that – He was lightweight and very ineffective through the tournament, we had no midfield and opponents only needed to walk past him and he would let them pass, he never even went anywhere near where an opponent was with the ball, he always cleverly went away from it and the only 1 time he was caught near the action and it was a 50/50 ball, he pulled away so obviously that even a blind person would have seen him pull out of that 50/50 tackle – we played the whole tournament with a short 1 deficit in the midfield and you better believe, he was the main culprit and his performance in the final was even the worst of all his bad performances in the whole tournament.
All those you are calling are heroes! Aina, Ekong – all heroes!
Nobody is bullying anybody, it is trolling by the way and I absolutely do not support such moronic behaviour however the truth is the truth and we must always call a spade a spade and the only way anyone can see this otherwise is if they have no understanding of the game of football