Cybereagles

After a catastrophic 2022 for Nigerian football supporters saw the country’s senior men’s national team fail to meet expectations in all competitions, Portuguese coach José Peseiro was brought in to oversee a rebuilding project to bring the Super Eagles back to prominence in African football. The 62-year-old has managed top clubs in Africa including Egypt’s Al Ahly as well as in his native Portugal but Peseiro is showing enthusiasm for his latest project by making efforts to learn more about Nigeria’s top domestic league, the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL).

While attending a match on Sunday in the country between Sunshine Stars and Niger Tornadoes, Peseiro fielded questions from reporters about his goals with the Super Eagles. The coach admitted he still has plenty to learn about the NPFL but praised developments in Nigerian domestic football while encouraging the trend to continue in a positive direction. Peseiro was clear that he aims to win the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations that will take place in Ivory Coast in early 2024 while advocating for more positive developments in Nigerian domestic football.

Meeting the lofty goal of winning the next AFCON will be a serious challenge despite the talent that is in Nigeria’s player pool. Peseiro took charge following Nigeria’s 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification playoff round defeat to Ghana in early September 2022 and the results have not been encouraging so far with friendly defeats to Mexico, Ecuador, Algeria, Costa Rica and Portugal. However the Super Eagles have imposed themselves in the early stages of 2023 AFCON qualifying with the Group A favorites winning their first two matches against Sierra Leone and São Tomé and Príncipe.

The adventure continues for Peseiro in March when Nigeria return to 2023 AFCON qualifying with two matchups against Guinea-Bissau, an opportunity to wrestle full control of Group A and seal qualification with two matches remaining. More on Peseiro’s comments are in the link below from Nigeria’s Premium Times