'This Is Why Super Eagles Are Flying Again' - NFF Chief

The Super Eagles are flying again thanks to the young blood coach Gernot Rohr has injected into the team, according to top NFF chief Seyi Akinwunmi.


Kelechi Iheanacho, Alex Iwobi, Wilfred Ndidi, Dele Alampasu, Musa Mohammed and Kingsley Madu are all under 20.

The average age of the starting Eagles XI in Zambia last month was 25.

“The key is that we have lowered the average age of the Super Eagles,” said Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) vice-president Akinwunmi.

“This is a game for young people and you could even see at 90 minutes, when they were genuinely tired, they kept going.”

He went on to reel out the names of several other youngsters who will soon be battling for places in the national team.

“There are many young players who were not here with the team – the youngster Tammy Abraham at Chelsea, Taiwo Awoniyi, Isaac Success, Victor Osimhen, many of them who in a few months will be challenging for places in this team,” he said.

The Eagles outscored one of Africa’s top teams in Algeria on Saturday, but the top official maintained they remain a work in progress.

“It was a deserved victory. I predicted that and now I am happy the boys held out,” he said.

“Even when they pushed us in the second half, I was confident that if they scored, we will also score.

“We are in the ‘Group of Life’, but we cannot take our foot off the pedal. We have to arrange games for the team so that there is continued competition among the players.

“The World Cup is still very far away so that we have to keep that tempo going.

“This team will surely get better.”