Super Eagles’ Coach, Jose Peseiro, yesterday, explained that it took the national team’s technical crew several weeks of evaluation to arrive at the 25 players they have chosen to represent Nigeria at the forthcoming Africa Cup of Nations.
The 2024 Africa Cup of Nations will hold in Cote d’Ivoire from January 13 to February 11, 2024. According to Peseiro, the coaches set out to pick the best available players when the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) decided that the team would go with only 25 players instead of the 27 allowed for the competition by the Confederation of African Football (CAF).
The players and their officials are expected from their different stations to Abu Dhabi, UAE, today, for a six-day training camp, which will see the Eagles play two friendly games against Burkina Faso and DR Congo.
Peseiro said the players chosen from the 41-man list were those that were part of the team from the day he became the national team coach and some new players, who passed all the criteria the technical crew used in selecting the team.
“We also considered their performance in their clubs and for the national team. Some players play well for their clubs and fail to produce same result for the national team, while some play well for the national team, but do not do well in their clubs. So, we chose those that play well for us. We also looked at current form of the players for their clubs. We combined all the three criteria to choose the best possible players.”
The coach added: “We also looked at each player’s fighting ability, on and off field relationship with others, character. When there are players with same quality, we picked the ones that create better atmosphere for us. But it was not easy to choose the players from the array of stars available to us.”
On Stanley Nwabili, who is making his debut in the team, he said the goalkeeper was chosen after several analysis of the games he played for his club.
Peseiro said the coaches had to trim the number of players from 72 players to 42 before arriving at the 25, adding that they had several ways of looking at those players that were new to the team.
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We received information about Nwabili from the NFF scout and we observed him through his videos from South Africa.
“I went to South Africa, spent four days, spoke with his coaches, watched their training sessions, where he showed the qualities that we want. I hope he shows that same level of performance in the Super Eagles because playing for a club is different from playing for the national team.”
On the trip to Abu Dhabi, Peseiro said his team will spend six days in the camp to perfect their strategies for the AFCON and play two different games that would give an insight into what to expect from the Eagles in Cote d’Ivoire.
He disclosed that he still has until January 10 to change any injured player with another from the 41-man list, adding that the team’s doctors will examine the team’s fitness level in Abu Dhabi.
On Nigeria’s quest for a fourth AFCON title in Cote d’Ivoire, Peseiro said: “Since the first time I took the job, my objective has been to win the competition. I think we belong to the first five teams in Africa.
“Winning the AFCON is my goal, my objective, but it is not going to be easy to do that. Our group is not easy. Cote d’Ivoire, the hosts, have good players; Equatorial Guinea were in the quarterfinals last time, while Guinea Bissau have beaten us before. But we are ready to enjoy the competition and be at our best to win the championship.”
