Watford of England defender, William Troost-Ekong has declared that he and other players in the Nigerian national team, Super Eagles, will give everything they have to win this year’s Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon.
SportsDayOnline.com reports that, speaking ahead of the team’s first match of the competition on Tuesday against Egypt, Troost-Ekong acknowledged that the task at hand will not be easy, but stressed that the Eagles are all determined to excel.
He reckoned that settling for bronze or silver could be a consolation, but added that those targets are even difficult to achieve, hence his verdict that the three-time African champions had better gun for the tougher task of all.
With that target in mind, the former Tottenham Hotspur of England youth team player, who has also starred for Dordrecht of Netherlands, Haugesund of Norway, KAA Gent of Belgium, Bursaspor of Turkey and Udinese of Italy, declared emphatically that the Nigerian stars will shine at AFCON 2021.
He opted to remain optimistic, despite the fact that the Nigeria team will be without Victor Osimhen, Paul Ebere Onuachu, Emmanuel Bonaventure Dennis, Peter Oghenekaro Etebo, Leon Aderemi Balogun and Odion Jude Ighalo.
Rather than feel a dampened morale due to the missing stars, Okoye disclosed that he and the other lads have not been deflated, as the mood in camp is already high ahead of their opening game, which he admitted would be a stepping stone to how they would fare overall in the championship.
Okoye told MTN Nigeria’s We Move With Super Eagles: “Of course they are very important players for us, for the country but we could see that the coach made other good decisions, and players who can also do very good things.
“The target is the gold medal. If we go there not thinking about gold, maybe silver or bronze is even more difficult so we need to put in our mind we want to win this AFCON.”
