Captain of the Super Eagles of Nigeria Mikel Obi has sensationally revealed that the Nigerian team could have won the World Cup if they were united as a family. A trait this present team currently has ahead of the start of the World Cup in Russia.
Mikel who missed out on the 2010 edition of the World Cup but participated at the 2014 showpiece in Brazil said previous squads didn’t have the same unity like the present team and that affected their performance.
According to Mikel, Nigeria could have won the World Cup in the past but the fact that players were not united and officials were also having issues with the team . Something that isn’t visible in this present crop of Super Eagles players and management of the team.
He said the problem of the Nigerian team at previous World Cups has always centred around poor organisation and poor discipline among the players, who were up against themselves also affected Nigeria at previous tournaments.
“There were a lot of problems in the camp which a lot of people didn’t see, the media didn’t see – we kind of hid it under the table. The relationships between the players were not good and there was no discipline. There was no good feeling, no good vibe”, Mikel said in an interview with The Guardian.
“It almost got to people being pinned up against dressing-room walls, although not quite. It was confrontation and arguments. Players wanted to do their own thing and they didn’t think about the team.”
Michael James
