Former Nigeria international and Oldham United coach, Chukwuma Akuneto, has expressed doubts about Mali-born manager Eric Sekou Chelle’s ability to guide the Super Eagles to their maiden African Nations Championship (CHAN) triumph in August, Completesports.com reports.
Nigeria has yet to win the CHAN trophy, although the team claimed bronze in Cape Town, South Africa, in 2014, and silver in Morocco in 2018. After missing the last two editions, the Super Eagles B team secured their return by defeating Ghana’s Black Galaxies 3-1 on aggregate. The CHAN 2024 tournament will, for the first time, be hosted across three countries—Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania.
At the draw held in Nairobi on Wednesday, 15 January 2025, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) placed Nigeria in Group D alongside defending champions Senegal, Congo, and Sudan. Group D is the only four-team group in the tournament, which will feature 19 teams vying for the $3.5 million prize.
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With Nigerians celebrating their return to the competition after a six-year absence, Akuneto told Completesports.com from his base in the United Kingdom that he remains sceptical about Chelle’s ability to deliver the much-anticipated trophy.
“Our local league has propped up in terms of organisation lately and this has positively affected the quality of the NPFL,” Akuneto said.
“So I’m expecting a good performance from our players at the CHAN”, he added.
Asked if he believes Eric Sekou Chelle has what it takes to guide the Nigeria Premier Football League, NPFL stars to their first CHAN title success in the 2024 CHAN Tournament, Akuneto responded that he doesn’t know.
“I don’t know is the answer, but he is currently coaching in Africa (MC Oran of Algeria) so he understands the football within the continent and his coaching/playing career shows that he is highly experienced in the game.
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“I expect good things but you never get into major tournament with trophies in hand already”.
Akuneto also called on the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to ensure adequate preparation for the team.
“I hope the NFF provides sufficient support for the team so Coach Chelle can implement his plans and strategies to achieve victory,” he concluded.
By Sab Osuji
2 Comments
How will any coach lead the local players to CHAN glory when for years you people have been campaigning to swindle those players who are below SE Main A team standards into SE Main A team for Financial gains??.when instead we should have been taking this tournament seriously and preparing them for CHAN year in Year out since before Senegal won the championship 2 years ago. CHAN Eagles should have been promoted to Local players as the goal before any Super Eagles jump just like the CAF Champions league should be seen as a priority instead in a country where things are done with greed and backwardness you people are campaigning for unripe players to be swindled into Super Eagles with lies that it will improve the standard of the league whereas apart from actually improving the league infrastructure and running of the league what I have outlined CHAN and CAF Champions League is the way to improve local players standards of Ball.
Nigerian players know what is at stake.. It’s entirely up to them. Some of them know it’s their last chance to play at the WC. Westerhoff who had less qualification when he came to Nigeria succeeded because Nigerians are just special. If Chelle had been whilte, some of these commentators wouldn’t have said anything.other thsn let’s give him a chance. it’s very sad that in 2026, we stll worshipping white skin. If Finidi had done well, we wouldn’t be saying this now. Eguavoen did his best but he allowed players who were not playing regularly in their clubs to play such as Iheanacho because he had experience. With Chelle, there will be no such allegiance, We may be surprised to see some regulars not called up again.