William Troost-Ekong has said Super Eagles players have confidence in new head coach Eric Chelle as he prepares for his first assignment since his appointment.
Chelle will begin his reign as Super Eagles coach with a tricky Group C fixture away to Rwanda on matchday 5 of the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers in Kigali on Friday.
The Eagles are in a picarious situation as they are currently in fifth place on three points and are yet to win in the qualifying campaign.
Rwanda, on seven points, have dropped to second as Benin Republic have temporarily gone top following their 2-2 draw away to Zimbabwe on Thursday.
Speaking in Thursday’s pre-match press conference, Troost-Ekong said:”We have new ideas and whenever you have a new manager it’s always a situation where players would want to prove themselves to the coach, they want to give their best.
“So there is a new level of focus, all the players respect the coach very much, we’ve seen what he did with the previous team and like I said we are trying to understand as quickly as we could in three training sessions and what he expects from us.
“It’s a work in progress hopefully it would be a continuous growth and this first game would be a test straight away maybe in as early in us working together.
“Like I said I have full confidence in the team the team has confidence in the coach and it’s left for us to execute and do the job. And I know that Rwanda will be in the same situation, they would be motivated to show themselves to the new coach.”
By James Agberebi
