Super Eagles

Former  captain of the Nigeria national football team, Segun Odegbami, has charged soccer loving Nigerians not to be hopeful of a Super Eagles victory at the 2013 African Cup of Nations billed for South Africa, saying the team has no chance of winning the biennial competition next year.

In a chat with THISDAY at the conference centre of the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Lagos, Tuesday, he said the present Super Eagles players still need time to blend before they can become a team and that it is only then we can start talking about winning trophies.

On the agitation by some sections calling for a home-based Eagles, the Mathematical one said: Stephen Keshi cannot play a complete home-based players and hope to go far because our domestic football is not developed yet and a largely home base selection for the tournament will be a complete disaster.

“Keshi has no magic wand to turn them into the exceptionally gifted players that is required for winning the competition. We will still need to bring in some foreign players that are experienced and exposed to build a team. It is only a team that wins championship and not individual players and you don’t build a team in a few weeks but over a period of time.”

He however praised Keshi for being smart in trying to assess and get the best local players to compliment with a few foreign players and have some kind of blend.

“The experimentation must have to continue because those he has discovered are still not good enough to win it. For now it is not really about winning the Nations Cup, rather about building a team for the future that can compete for the 2015 and probably win it then, but not in 2013,” the  Mathematical one affirmed.

The Super Eagles are grouped alongside the defending champions, Zambia, Ethiopia and Burkina Faso in the tournament in South Africa.