Former Super Eagles and Leeds United defender Sam Sodje has faulted the Nigeria Football Federation over the struggles of the senior national team in recent years, Footynaija.com reports.
The Super Eagles currently boasts one of the most enviable array of stars on the African continent with the likes of Victor Osimhen, Ademola Lookman, Alex Iwobi, Wilfred Ndidi, Calvin Bassey and a host of others currently at the disposal head coach Eric Chelle.
Despite this, Nigeria’s last AFCON triumph came 16 years ago while the three time African champions have also failed to secure qualification for consecutive FIFA World Cups, including this summer’s edition which will take place in the US, Mexico and Canada.
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“I think we’ve thrown it away by not qualifying for two World Cups and struggling for the last couple of Nations Cups,” Sodje said in a recent interview with Footy Africa.
“Because if you ask me—I know we all praise the ’94 set, the ’96 set—but believe me, with this new generation, I think we had the best generation ever and I think we blew it.
“Hopefully, they are still around for a couple of years’ time, but football is a funny game; you just never know how long you can play for.
“But we definitely blew it, and I don’t blame the players, I blame the organization.
“Missing the World Cup for twice in a row really killed the chance for these players to go out there and explore their talents and get that kind of recognition the former players had.
“So yeah, it’s so sad. Hopefully, they can win something because I think this is a golden generation.”
Whether this current crop of Super Eagles stars are truly Nigeria’s golden generation is up for debate but there’s no denying that there are very few African teams that can match the array of talents available across every area of the pitch.
