It’s time to start serious preparations for the next tournament
The Super Eagles is a brand that should not be left in incompetent hands
The 2026 FIFA World Cup has since ended with the Spanish national team winning the trophy for a second time while their women national team are the World Cup defending champions. Meanwhile, Africa had 10 representatives at the tournament, namely Morocco, Egypt, Senegal, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Cape Verde, South Africa, DR Congo, Algeria and Tunisia. Nine of them reached the knockout stages. Cape Verde won the neutrals’ hearts in their tournament debut; Ghana exceeded predictions; Senegal became the first African team to score five goals in a World Cup game while Morocco became the first to reach consecutive quarterfinals, narrowly missing matching their 2022 feat in Qatar.
From these performances, Africa can no longer be regarded as presenting the whipping teams that merely come to the World Cup tournaments every four years to make up the numbers. But for Nigerian football followers, failure of the Super Eagles to qualify for a second consecutive World Cup despite the arrays of stars making waves in European leagues has left more questions than answers.
