The former captain of the senior national team of Nigeria John Obi Mikel has picked the one player in the Super Eagles team that has a big game mentality as they head into two crucial games in the world cup qualifiers, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.
Mikel who now runs a podcast played with most of the senior players in the team in a distinguished national team career that saw him win the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations, and also played in two world cup tournaments.
He is backing the team to get back to winning ways when they resume their campaign in the 2026 world cup qualifiers with games against Rwanda and Zimbabwe respectively, later this month under new coach Eric Chelle.
Speaking ahead of both games Mikel said the Super Eagles often do well with their back against the wall, and expects it to be the case when they play in both games looking for a first win in the series. A poor run that has left them 5th in the six team group and four points behind the leaders Rwanda.
” I expect Super Eagles to win both games even though it hasn’t been the best of start to the qualifiers. The players know the consequences of missing out on another world cup and won’t want a repeat. One thing I know is how the team tend to give their best in situations like this”, Mikel told OwnGoalNigeria.com via a source in Dubai.
” In the team we have players with huge mentality for games like this. Moses Simon is one player I know that has such character. I never liked playing against him in training. You can also say players like Victor Osimhen, William Troost-Ekong and Ademola Lookman can be called upon in games like this”.
Ade Emmanuel
