SUPER EAGLES: President Tinubu should act now – Akpoborie

He was a subordinate of the Golden Eaglets that won the archetypal FIFA U17 World Cup successful 1985. Following that breakthrough tournament, Jonathan Akpoborie, a erstwhile subordinate of the defunct Julius Berger FC of Lagos went overseas for a nonrecreational career. His sojourn took him to the USA and yet Germany, wherever helium spent astir of his nonrecreational career. He besides played for the Super Eagles.

The erstwhile Hansa Rostock, Wolfsburg and Stuttgart striker spoke with Solomon Nwoke connected wherefore Nigerian shot has stagnated and the mode forward. Excerpts

It’s been a portion since you’ve been distant from football. What takes your clip these days?

Have you played play before? Golf has really taken maine distant from astir everything but my business. Golf is an absorbing game. Sometimes I play tennis, but play has really taken maine distant from each different sports. Very, precise interesting.

Apart from golf, what different concern are you into?

I enactment with a German institution that has brought a cocktail portion into Nigeria.

I’m trying to assistance them to marketplace that drink. At this moment, we are trying to spell for marketers that volition assistance america enactment the portion into the market.

What is the quality betwixt playing play and playing football?

It’s precise simple. When you play football, sometimes you don’t enactment up your champion game.

Your teammates tin really prevention you. This is an idiosyncratic sport. On the time you don’t play well, you won’t get assistance from anyone due to the fact that cipher is acceptable to assistance you. Through your card, your show volition show. It is you that is playing. It is you that is swinging. Mentally, I deliberation play is much challenging than football.

Let’s digress a spot to the Super Eagles. As a France 98 Super Eagles star, what is your presumption connected Nigeria’s struggles successful the FIFA 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers?

It’s unfortunate that Nigeria whitethorn not beryllium going to the 2nd consecutive World Cup.

It’s really precise annoying. It is disgraceful. But I cannot archer you that it is wholly the responsibility of the players.

The players person their ain faults but it is mostly owed to the organisational facet of the game.

The NFF and the radical astir the Super Eagles are not taking responsibility. If you don’t organise well, you volition not execute well. We benignant of place everything regarding the organisation and everything the boys volition bash earlier the game.

But these boys, the bulk of them travel from Europe and they play successful a strategy wherever everything is good organised. So if they travel and things are not good organised, I’m sorry, they cannot springiness you an answer.

What bash you mean by that?

Of course, that’s what the reply means. You person 11 players and you tin archer that these players are not giving their best. We person an administrative bureau present and there. I’ll springiness you an illustration with the past crippled we played successful South Africa. We played Rwanda connected Saturday. Can anybody springiness maine a crushed wherefore we played connected Saturday?

The South Africans played connected Friday due to the fact that they cognize that they volition play connected Tuesday against Nigeria. You tin spot that they purposely took america to a tract that is atrocious and to a precocious altitude, wherever our boys would get bushed easily. We went determination late.

We played connected Saturday and past near connected Sunday. We should person really tried to play our crippled connected Thursday, question connected Friday and that would person fixed our boys 3 days to bid and to get utilized to the upwind earlier they play against South Africa. But we did not. We present played late, travelled connected Sunday, trained connected Monday, once, past played connected Tuesday.

Now, if everybody is looking astatine the game, they say, ah, aft the archetypal half, the boys were tired.

Of course, they volition beryllium bushed due to the fact that they did not acclimatise. That is the organisation. Those successful complaint of the organisation, the NFF don’t look to person that clue.

When I was playing, we utilized to spell a week earlier to get utilized to the weather, earlier we present play against a team. You know, past your lungs are bigger due to the fact that they present get utilized to the precocious altitude.

Those small things, they look truly small, but they are large erstwhile the results travel in.

Is it deficiency of cognition connected the broadside of the NFF not to person thought of that?

Well, that is thing for the NFF to challenge.

You know, if I was successful the NFF, that would ne'er person happened due to the fact that if we really protested to FIFA, they would person shifted the day for the games.

It is unfair and I cannot recognize why, earlier the opening of the qualif...