Nigeria Football Fans

Nigeria at the World Cup

Jose Mourinho has confirmed the midfielder John obi Mikel will be absent from the Champions League match against Maribor on Wednesday night.

The Nigerian midfielder has largely been a second choice for the midfield positions this campaign.

The future of Nigeria’s national squad coach Stephen Keshi is a topic of discussion that has recently been talked about for the past few months as the 52 year old manager expressed his desire to step down and resign from coaching the team. He announced this decision on June 30 of the ongoing year but later reversed his choice.

The Chilean attacker Alexis Sanchez earlier in the month of July completed his move from Barcelona to Arsenal with the Premier League club having to pay around €30 million in order to secure his services. However, things are going exactly as planned for the coach of Arsenal Arsene Wenger as he is displeased by the fact that his latest signing will not be able to train with his new team.

In the game of football or in any other game for that matter, it doesn’t take long for a sportsperson to become a hero or villain in the eyes of the fans. You can be a hero on one day and villain next day and vice versa.

It has happened with a number of sportspersons over the years. Currently, the man who is finding himself in such a situation is Stephen Keshi, the Nigeria boss.

Nigeria are finally expected to do big things at the World Cup 2014, but manager Stephen Keshi has thrown a major bombshell by saying that he does not still know which players will be making it into the final squad for the competition. Nigeria are going through their best phase in the last 20 years since the team has a lot of quality and most of the players are young. The presence of players like Victor Moses and John obi Mikel helped the nation lift the African cup of nations for the first time in more than two decades.

Nigeria's manager Stephen Keshi has decided to recall former Everton defender Joseph Yobo to the national team squad for the upcoming match against Mexico.

This is one of the few friendly matches Nigeria have before they take part in the World Cup. Group along with Argentina, Iran, and Bosnia, Nigeria have a great chance of reaching the knockout stages. Argentina are expected to be the overwhelming favourites to win the group, but the second qualifying spot is there for the taking. Keshi wants to make sure that he has the best squad in order to do the job.

Nigeria's national team manager Stephen Keshi has hailed his team after they managed to come back from three goals down to win the match 4-3 in the second half. Nigeria were playing against Morocco in the African nations championship, which is a tournament meant for players playing in Africa. Nigeria recently won the African cup of nations for the first time in almost 2 decades.

Nigeria were recently involved in a friendly match with Italy at Craven cottage and they came out of the match with a credible 2-2 draw against the 2006 world champions.

Nigeria manager Stephen Keshi said after the match that his players deserved this result because they have to go to extreme lengths in order to perform well. Nigeria had only come to London 48 hours before the match, which meant that his players were suffering from serious jetlag issues. Some of them had not slept properly, but despite such difficulties, they were able to get the draw.

Africa is proving to be one of the toughest regions for teams to get into the World Cup. As much as nine teams have the ability to seal qualification for the World Cup 2014 in the next few qualifiers.

Nigeria managed to comfortably get past Malawi in the latest World Cup qualifying match. After the 2-0 victory, national team coach Stephen Keshi has said that he is confident that Nigeria can beat any of the World Cup qualifying teams from Africa. The likes of Ivory Coast, Ghana, and Egypt will be the favourites at the World Cup 2014.

Nigeria have been doing poorly in the FIFA rankings in recent times. They have dropped seven places since the last two rankings came out. They are currently ranked 35th in the world.

The national team manager, Stephen Keshi, though, thinks that the rankings from FIFA are not a true indicator of the quality of the teams. He has recalled how Brazil managed to lift the Confederations cup a few weeks ago by managing to beat the best team in the world – Spain. Brazil are currently 22nd in the world ranking tables despite having won the World Cup more than any country in the world.