The Interview Editors
What will be your assessment of the Super Eagles of Nigeria after winning the bronze medal at the last Africa Cup of nations played in Egypt?
Overall, bronze medal is good which showed that we did well, especially finishing third out of 24 teams that took part in the competition.
Nigerians don’t want anything less than the gold medal, but we should congratulate the team and commend them for what they achieved.
Would you say they met your expectations or not?
I will say some matches were good while some we didn’t get the right result, but we have to remember that all the teams that went for the championship want to win and some big teams were even eliminated before the semi-final, so we should appreciate our team.
The two teams that got to the final had local coaches, while most of them that exited the competition early were coached by foreign coaches; would you say our own coach, Gernot Rohr, have done well?
He has done his best to the best of my knowledge.
I won’t say he has done fantastically well, but he qualified the team for the World Cup and also getting to the semi-final of the AFCON while winning the bronze medal along the line.
However, the NFF should be the one to judge him according to their target for him whether he has done well enough for them and the country.
Nigerians don’t want anything less than the gold medal, but we should congratulate the team and commend them for what they achieved
Two key members of the team, Mikel Obi and Odion Ighalo decided to retire from the team, what’s your take on this?
They felt it is better to leave when the ovation is loudest and I didn’t see anything wrong in that.
They have been giving their best serving the country and the national team. We just have to congratulate them for what they have done.
They have sacrificed a lot for the country and now that they have decided not to continue. We need to wish them well in their future endeavours.
Some people have been castigating someone like Ighalo, for failure to get goals for the team, but he responded with the highest goal scorer of the qualifiers and now the AFCON, so we should appreciate them both.
Who would you say were your best players in Egypt?
There are so many players that did well, so I won’t be able to single out a player. So many of them gave their all starting from Alex Iwobi, and Kenneth Omeruo, We have to appreciate the team.
As a LaLiga ambassador, how will you rate the two Super Eagles players playing in Spain; Samuel Chukwueze and Kenneth Omeruo?
The two of them did well for the national team. They actually continued with what they did with their clubs in Spain and brought that form to the Super Eagles.
They both scored goals and really did well to take the team to the semi-final and the bronze medal.
What is the future for the Super Eagles?
For me, this team has a bright future, we have players that are very young, we have those that have long years ahead of them while we have some already waiting in the wings and will make this country proud.
