The former national team captain has given a below par verdict after the failure of the African champions to reach Equatorial Guinea 2015
Nigeria legend Nwankwo Kanu has scored the country’s football low in the outgoing year following the senior men’s team’s failure to qualify for next month’s Africa Cup of Nations.
The former Super Eagles captain said that there is much work to be done in 2015 to bring back the faded glory of the three-time African champions.
After winning their third title in South Africa in 2013, Nigeria reached the second round at the World Cup in Brazil but failed to qualify to defend their African crown in Equatorial Guinea.
“It is quite clear and we don’t need to shy away from the fact that Nigerian football did not fare well in the outgoing year,” Kanu told Goal.
“This is as a result of the Super Eagles’ failure to qualify for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations holding in Equatorial Guinea.
“So if we are not featuring among the best countries in Africa that would participate in the 2015 Afcon, it simply means that something [went] wrong with our football this year.
“We didn’t do well in the game this year, it’s just the honest truth. There is nothing good to write home about as regards the senior national team of Nigeria.
“Mind you, Fifa rates our performance based on the Super Eagles not the age grade or women national teams’ performances.
“It has been a disappointing year for Nigerian football. But by God’s grace, 2015 would be a new beginning for us.
“I sincerely pray that everybody involved in the entire crisis and problems that bedeviled Nigerian football in the year 2014 will sit back and look at themselves and have a rethink, have a change of mind and start working in earnest for the growth and good of the game in the country,” Kanu said.