Nigeria Players don’t know the value of Olympics Games – Victor Ikpeba

By Saheed Afolabi

Former Nigeria international, Victor Ikpeba has lashed out to the players of Nigeria U23 side for not giving their best to qualify Nigeria to the prestigious Olympic Games coming up in Paris next year.

The Olympic Eagles failed to qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympic games after they were eliminated by Guinea in the final qualifying game for the CAF U23 Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt.

The Prince of Monaco as fondly called during his active days, believes the players are not taking the Olympics Football event seriously, stressing the Olympics have given Nigeria glory and accolades.

“We are no longer taking the Olympics football tournament seriously back home and I don’t know why,” Ikpeba told FootballLive.

“Olympics football has given Nigeria glory and so much respect, it has given a lot of joy to Nigerians and Africans. It is something we need to take very seriously together with the World Cup and the AFCON.”

While Nigeria will be missing the men’s football event for the second time in a row, they have missed the women’s event in the three consecutive attempts.

Ikpeba appealed to the Nigeria government, NFF to put more emphasis on the qualification to the Olympics and the players must be inspired to qualify and win the showpiece.

“I will appeal to the Federal government, the Federal Ministry of Sports and the NFF to put more emphasis on the Olympics, so the boys that go out there to compete must know the importance of the Olympics, because it is neither the Ministry nor NFF that will play.

“The players must know the importance of going out there and competing and qualify. They must be inspired to win a medal, it is a global event. The Olympic games is not just about football, there are all sports involved, so it makes it very unique.

“We need to educate our players too, whenever they have the opportunity to compete; to qualify for the Olympics, they should take it seriously, they can make a name for themselves with it, it is really sad [how the Country has struggled].”