Afccon 2023: Waidi Akanni says unpredictable Eagles can’t win the African title

Former Super Eagles midfielder Waidi Akanni, over the weekend, posited that the Super Eagles would need a miracle to win the 2023 Côte d’Ivoire Africa Nation’s Cup (Afcon) due to inadequate preparation.

 “My expectations are the same whenever Super Eagles play, they have become very unreliable. So, I won’t expect much from them because I don’t want to be disappointed.

“Winning Afcon will be a miracle for Nigeria. It would be presumptuous of me to expect Super Eagles to come out tops at the championship.

“One of the elements of a team is predictability, I can’t predict them because I don’t know their pedigree.

“I believe I’m not the only one that feels this way about the team, a lot needs to be worked on in the midfield, defence, and goalkeeping departments of the team,” he said.

 Akanni, a member of the bronze medal-winning U-20 1985 FIFA World Youth Championship team, said the handlers of the team should have included some home-based players.

“It has always been the same for Afcon with African countries because of the European season. It’s difficult to get a full house of players as a group till about a week before Afcon.

“I think the coaches should have allowed some home-based players to compete for some positions, not only goalkeepers.

“The final list is predictable as we had all the former players both fit and unfit in the 41-Man list,” he said.

The team is set to depart for a one-week training camp in Abu Dhabi.

The team will later proceed to Abidjan where it will face Equatorial Guinea in the opening Group A match on Jan. 14, 2024, and later Côte d’Ivoire, and Guinea-Bissau.

Super Eagles, three-time champions of the tournament: 1980, 1994, and 2013, hope to win the trophy for the fourth time when the tournament kicks off in January 2004.