Legendary Nigerian striker and African Cup of Nations winner in 1980, Segun Odegbami has rated the Super Eagles higher than all the West African teams ahead of the 2024 AFCON starting next week in Cote d’Ivoire.
Speaking during a chat on Nigeria Info FM, Odegbami argued that if any nation were to deny the Super Eagles the chance to win the title, it would not be the likes of Senegal, Cameroon, Ghana and hosts Cote d’Ivoire.
The Super Eagles boosted with the firepower of Victor Osimhen and Victor Boniface will tackle Equatorial Guinea January 14 in their opener, before playing against hosts Elephants of Cote d’ Ivoire and Guinea Bissau and according to Odegbami the Super Eagles rated sixth on the continent might just be the surprise team of the tournament.
“I’m going to AFCON fully loaded to join those that will come back with that trophy. If you ask me why, I really don’t know, I can’t justify it but I have a gut feeling that it’s going to happen,” Odegbami said.
“The other teams are not very strong, the stronger teams are the North African teams but they are coming to meet us in West Africa.
“Senegal are not the team of two, three years ago, Côte d’Ivoire are not the same at all and those are the strong teams from West Africa that could give us a fight. Not Ghana, not Cameroon.”
He hoped that the coaches will make the right selections and the players themselves put up their very best.
“He (Osimhen) is going to do well and win for us and based on a few of those things and we have good players but they haven’t blended as a team but now they will have a little bit of time to blend a little.
“The other teams are not very strong and we have Victor Osimhen and I pray they remove Francis Uzoho in goal, if we do all of those things we are going to come back with the trophy.”
Segun Odegbami and Daniel Amokachi