By ABIRHIRE THOMAS reporting from Abidjan
National President of a Nigeria’s leading football supporters club, Football Fans Club of Nigeria (FFCN), Amb. Kemi Ogunfuwa, has congratulated the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and the Super Eagles of Nigeria on the qualification of the senior national team for the final of the 34th edition of African Cup of Nations 2023.
The Coach Peseiro tutored side flew over the Bafana Bafana of South Africa to land in victory with 4-2 scores via penalty shootouts, on Wednesday February 2, 2024.
In the congratulatory message signed by the CAF award winning matriarch and copy of which was made available to The DEFENDER by the FFCN at Pullman Hotel, Abidjan, where the Super Eagles are lodged, Ogunfuwa expresed joy over the victory of the national team which most people believed would not make much impact in the tournament.
She noted that the team is capable of lifting the title for the record 4th time if the players put their minds together and replicate what they did against Cameroon, Guinea Bissau , Angola and of course South Africa. In her words, the Lagos based business tycoon said:
“I am extremely delighted for the Super Eagles of Nigeria for making it to the final of the African Cup of Nations. This is against all odds.She praised the Executive Members of the Nigeria Football Federation under the able leadership Alhaji Musa Gusau, the technical team led by Coach Jose Peseiro and the team as a whole.
“The South Africans were very strong and tactical but our boys were able to neutralize them. The Bafana Bafana were also more adventurous than our boys covering more distance with fluidity but our boys were able to curtail their excesses and scaled through to the final. This is a message of assurance that our boys are capable of lifting the title for the record 4th time as captured in.”lets do again mantra,”
“I think they should not be carried away by reaching the finals of AFCON but getting the job done by winning the title will put their names in the path of history book of Nigerian football. This should not be the end of the road for our boys, but they should rather see their final birth as a catalyst to lifting the 4th title in the continent.
“We say congratulations to the Nigeria Football Federation, the team and officials, and of course, all football loving Nigerians,” she said.
The one time member of Lagos State Women Football Committee and ‘Mama Nigeria’, as Kemi is fondly called, however, charged the NFF not to be complacent in their quest to build the age-grade teams that would rule their world in time to come so as to replace some tired legs at the senior national team.
“I think it is time we make our age grade teams a repository of talents for the senior national team,the Super Eagles of Nigeria. Mikel Obi, Taye Taiwo, Chinedu Ogbuke, Kola Ige and some other players rose through the ranks and made it to the top of their career,” the soft speaking football administrator pleaded.
