A former assistant coach within the Tremendous Eagles, Sylvanus Okpala has charged the Nigerian nationwide staff’s present handler, Eric Sekou Chelle, to repeat the nation’s 2013 Africa Cup of Nations profitable heroics, Sports247 stories.
READ ALSO: Victor Osimhen Opens Up: Why I Play With All My Power
Okpala, who was an assistant to late Stephen Keshi within the technical crew that surprisingly marshalled a rag-tag squad to win AFCON 2013, reasoned that the present staff is loaded with high quality stars who haven’t any excuses to not win the upcoming championship.
The ex-international midfielder, who was fondly referred to as ‘Quicksilver’ throughout his heyday, averred: “We’ve got gamers who can win the Nations Cup for us. I keep in mind in 2013, we by no means had the type of high quality gamers which can be on this staff.
“At that time, there was solely Mikel (Obi) and (Vincent) Enyeama … who once more? We then had home-based gamers, and we have been in a position to mix them.
“We used them to beat almighty (Didier) Drogba, Yaya Toure, Kolo Toure, (Salomon) Kalou, title them. We managed what we had, and we gained the cup in South Africa.”
Okpala careworn that Chelle, who hails from Mali and coached his nation’s staff on the final AFCON, ought to be capable of comply with the instance of Keshi, who earlier dealt with the identical Francophone West African nation’s squad, and use Nigeria’s array of stars to rule Maroc 2025.
“In 2013, we didn’t have these type of seasoned gamers, who characteristic week-in-week-out for large golf equipment in Europe. With this current squad, the coach has gamers who may even win the World Cup
“Anytime we go for the Nations Cup, we should always at all times go there to win it; not simply to take part. The peak of Nigeria at present is in African soccer.
“That’s why we should always go to this Nations Cup to win it. Folks say it’s not obligatory that we should win it, however that doesn’t imply we should always not consider profitable it. That’s our principal objective of going there,” Okpala careworn.
