• Emeodufu Photo: Sun News Publishing

More Stories on This Section

Super Eagles’ longest serving captain, Stephen Keshi, has been taking to the cleaners for writing off Nigeria’s chances of winning the Ghana 2008 Nations Cup, which begins next January.

Keshi, who himself was the skipper of the squad that won the Tunisia’94 Nations Cup, tipped the Elephants of Cote d’Ivoire to lift the coveted trophy and dismissed the Eagles as pretenders, who do not have the credentials to become African champions in Ghana.

But ex-international, Tony Emeodufu, who came into limelight at the Canada’87 FIFA Under-17 World Cup, described Keshi as a disgruntled fellow, who does not see anything good in the nation unless he is in charge.

The former Bendel Insurance winger, told Sunday Sunsport in an interview in Benin that Keshi was wrong to have said that Eagles should forget the Nations Cup trophy.
According to him: "I’m not happy with the way people are writing Super Eagles off in the forthcoming African Cup of Nations in Ghana. For instance, Keshi does not mean well for Nigeria. It’s wrong for him to have said that Cote d’Ivoire would lift the 2008 African Cup of Nation in Ghana.

"In 1994, Keshi captained the Super Eagles to win the Nations Cup, and if someone had come up to say his squad would not do well then, what would have been his reaction?" Emeodufu asked.
"As an ex-footballer, it’s good for one to be positive. Super Eagles have got all it takes to win the Cup in Ghana. I’m very optimistic about it.
"If you understand football very well, there is absolutely no need to underrate any team, because none is going to Ghana on jamboree.

"No matter the level of criticisms coming from football fans, I feel that Super Eagles will have the best squad in Ghana and some people would be surprised by the way they would shock their opponents.
According to Emeodufu, Keshi does not have any moral justification to write off the Eagles, when he could not even qualify the Hawks of Togo for the Nations Cup.

"For me, I feel that Keshi is not good enough to handle a national team, because if he was good enough, he would have qualified the Hawks of Togo for the Nations Cup in Ghana.
"I think he has some grouse against Nigeria. If not, as an experienced coach, he is supposed to be encouraging our boys, because no matter the problem he has with the Nigeria Football Association (NFA), he should put his country first. After all, it’s Nigeria that made him whatever he is today.

"During the World Youth Championship in Saudi Arabia in 1989 for instance, a lot of people wrote Nigeria off, but we shocked the world there. Again, recently, nobody gave the late Yemi Tella a chance with his Nigeria’s Under-17 squad. But today, they are the world champions.

"Anything can happen in football, the least expected team can pull a surprise in the game. So, Ghana 2008 Nations Cup is open to all comers to the championship.
"I don’t see any team as a threat to Super Eagles, not even Cote d’Ivoire," he said. "For me, Nigeria will be among the four teams that will play in the finals.

"My advice to Berti Vogts is that he should give every player the opportunity to showcase his skill in the camp, especially the home-based Eagles. Meanwhile, NFA should put the Glass House in order. What we need now is the growth of local football, because by the time the Europe-based players quit the scene completely, there should be people to step into their shoes. So, we need to have full home-based squad in the country.
"To the players, I would advise them to show total commitment towards the great task before them, because it would be a thing of great pride to them if they win the Nations Cup," Emeodufu concluded.