AFCON 2025
The seemingly controversial comments of Victor Ikpeba on the Current Super Eagles squad have got people talking online.
Ikpeba, the 1997 African Footballer of the Year says none of the current Super Eagles players will make it into the era of national team he played for.
Victor Ikpeba played a key role in the Super Eagles squad that won the 1994 Africa Cup of Nations. He also helped Nigeria make history by winning Africa’s first Olympic football gold medal at Atlanta 1996.
In a recent podcast, former Super Eagles forward claimed that none of the current national team players would have made the squad during his era.
He added that the disparity in talent and commitment between both eras is quite noticeable.
In my era, you have to know how to play football. Mhmm. In my era, not everybody was allowed to play football. So you want to have to play football. You have to have the talent, the passion, the quality to play football.
In the last, maybe twenty years, now most parents wants to allow their kids to play football because this morning. Yeah. Okay. That have changed. In those days, people were playing not just for the money, because of the passion and talent.
I go back in memory lane. The leaks we had in the eighties, nineties. Very, very competitive league in Nigeria. And the players that were playing the club side there were good players. For you to be selected to be part of the Green Eagles or the Super Eagles, you just shows that exceptional.
So I think quality wise and talent, I think we have it more than this era. Okay. I don’t think some of these guys in this era can play my era. And that is the truth. Yeah.
That’s true. Yeah. Yeah. And that is the truth. I look at your face.
Is it true? Now that’s the truth. I’ve said it. Is it? And it’s what it is.
Is it about is it about the skill? The skill, everything, the commitment, the physicality, everything. The fight. I I can show you somewhere. Yeah.
You look my head. You fight. Can they play in Lagos, some of them? Sorry for me to say. I love them.
Victor Ikpeba played for the national team from 1992 to 2002, excelling as a winger—now known as a wide forward—and occasionally as a supporting striker. He scored seven goals in 31 matches for the Super Eagles before retiring.
