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Tag: Akpoborie

  • Akpoborie tips Eze for greatness

    Akpoborie tips Eze for greatness

    Former Nigerian interna-tional, Jonathan Akpoborie, is confident that Lobi Stars central defender, Stephen Eze, will achieve greatness as a footballer.

    Eze, who is in his first year as a professional, learnt his trade at the club’s youth team, Lobi Stars Feeders, which campaign in the amateur class.

    Former Lobi Stars gaffer, Dominic Iorfa, eventually approved Eze’s elevation from the developmental team to the first team for top flight action after his impressive performance in the amateur class.

    “Eze is an intelligent young defender who needs to be guided and transformed into a big star. Having watched him during matches for his team, I’m convinced he’ll attract attention. I learnt he trained with the Under-20 team.

    “With his height, he should easily take care of aerial balls. Every coach will be glad to have a player like him in the defence,” Akpoborie, who played football in the German Bundesliga, said to supersport.com.

    Eze made his Premier League debut at Bayelsa United on matchday one and scored his first goal against Enugu Rangers on matchday eight.

     

  • Bonus row: Akpoborie backs Mikel, Enyeama

    Bonus row: Akpoborie backs Mikel, Enyeama

    Former Super Eagles forward Jonathan Akpoborie has backed the current squad on the fight against bonus cuts by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).

    Trouble ensued when the Eagles initially refused to travel for the FIFA Confederations Cup held in Brazil from Windhoek after a 1-1 draw with Namibia as they demanded a $10,000 wining bonus while the NFF was only willing to pay half the amount.

    Three key members of the Super Eagles, John Obi Mikel, Vincent Enyeama and Austin Ejide all failed to honour an invitation to state their case before the bonus row committee set up by Nigeria Sports Minister Bolaji Abdullahi, and Akpoborie has defended the action of the players.

    “All government officials in Nigeria have increase in allowances. Even the on-going ASUU strike. Please pay the players what they deserve,” he wrote on his Twitter handle on Friday. “(Football is) The only thing that brings Nigerians together and we don’t want to pay for it. It’s shameful

    “When I played I got 5000 (dollars) as bonus. That was 13 years ago. The cost of living is not the same again please. If you abolish the Super Eagles draw bonus, automatically, you must double the winning bonus too,” he wrote.

    Nigeria will host Malawi in a 2014 World Cup qualifier on September 7 and a win will see the African Champions qualify to the final stage of the CAF qualifiers.

  • Eagles proved me wrong – Akpoborie

    Eagles proved me wrong – Akpoborie

    Ex- Super Eagles star, Jonathan Akpoborie has admitted the Super Eagles have proved him wrong after the team beat Cote d’Ivoire to reach the African Nations Cup semi-finals.

    Akpoborie has been one of the dogged critics of coach Stephen Keshi and he said before the game that it would need a miracle for the eagles to fly past the star-studded Elephants of Cote d’Ivoire.

    “Great win for Stephen Keshi, against all odds. I doubted them, same with a lot of Nigerians. But for me, they have exceeded all my expectations already,” Akpoborie told MTNFootball.com

    “They believe in themselves and that was the magic. The Ivorians underrated them and our boys made the most of this.”

    Akpoborie’s former international teammate Tijjani Babangida told MTNFootball.com that the Eagles stunned the world with their display and victory on Sunday.

    “It was an amazing game they played, they surprised the entire world with their performance against Cote d’Ivoire. I don’t think I ever remember this team play such a great game,” Babangida told MTNFootball.com

    “Mikel and Onazi were outstanding, even the central defenders did well to keep Drogba, Kalou and Gervinho at bay. In fact the boys were wonderful. Keshi did magic to be able to motivate the players.”

    However, Babangida warned the players to put behind them this famous victory and focus on beating Mali on Wednesday in Rustenburg.

    “The boys should forget about this game and focus on the Mali game because it will be a different ball game, Malians are younger and more energetic than the Ivorians, but with the way Eagles played, I believe they are good for the trophy now,” Babangida added.

  • Lawal, Akpoborie tip Eagles for quarter finals

    FORMER stars have backed Nigeria to beat Ethiopia on Tuesday to reach the last eight of the AFCON after they dropped points against Zambia, reports MTNFootball.com

    The Super Eagles are now on two points from as many matches after they were held to another 11 draw by defending champions Zambia on Friday in Nelspruit.

    Ex-international Garba Lawal said that the Eagles are capable of advancing to the knockout stage but must still be at their best against bottom team Ethiopia.

    “The Eagles still have chance to qualify for the quarterfinal, but they must beat Ethiopia to go through and it is not going to be easy. It’s a must-win for the Eagles,” said Lawal.

    “Ethiopia will come to fight and so the Eagles must be at their best to beat them.”

    However, ‘Chindo’, who is on the NFF technical committee, said Coach Stephen Keshi would have to explain why he chose to play 4-3-3 and leave out wing play.

    “Keshi chose the players for the competition, so he will have to explain what happen to the wing play and why he resorted to a 4-3-3 formation. Apart from formation the team is not playing as a team,” he said.

  • Akpoborie: Eagles stand outside chance

    Akpoborie: Eagles stand outside chance

    •Says team needs a big improvement in

    passing, possession

    •Tips Victor Moses to shine if…

    •Cautions Glasshouse over semi-final mandate

    GOAL.COM caught up with Jonathan Akpoborie, former Super Eagles and many (not from this generation) will remember him as the little guy who scored the second goal for the cadet team that won the inaugural FIFA U-16 Championship in China in 1985.

    He went on to play successfully abroad and was a huge hit in the Bundesliga where he played for Hansa Rostock, VFB Stuttgart and Wolfsburg between 1996 and 2001. He featured in 144 games and scored 62 goals. He also won 13 caps for Nigeria, scoring four goals.

    Can Nigeria win the Nations Cup? That was the first question that was posed to Akpoborie and there was a lengthy pause before he said: “That is a hard question to answer but I think all we have is an outside chance,” Akpoborie told Goal.com.

    “Because football is not Mathematics, it is possible for the Super Eagles to win but at the same time they could crash out in the first round.

    “People say I am always criticAising the national team, handlers and administrators but with the performances exhibited, I will continue to say the truth and if that is construed as criticism – so be it,” he added.

    Akpoborie has keenly followed the reign of Stephen Keshi as coach of the national team in the last 13 months but he is not quite sure that there has been any improvement in the tactical setup of the national team.

    “When Keshi came in, the slogan was that the team is in a rebuilding phase, agreed. But this team still cannot put together five accurate passes from defence to attack – so I ask what are we rebuilding?

    “We are still at the same stage even though we will continue to have talented players who do better with their European club sides. It says something about the national set up and this question must be answered speedily for us to move forward,” he reiterated.

    “When I saw the team against Venezuela and Catalonia XI, you see a huge chasm between the strikers and the midfielders and also a huge vacuum between the defenders and the midfielders which gives me cause to worry for the team.

    “We need a big improvement in passing and possession if we want to go all the way in South Africa.”

    Which of the current Eagles players is he looking at to be the x-factor for the Super Eagles? Akpoborie promptly answered, “[Victor] Moses”.

    “When you see that boy in training, you know that he has still got a lot in his locker to show-case for the national team. He is one player that is almost technically and tactically sound though he is still learning the ropes.

    “I am expecting a lot from him but I hope that the coach will deploy him correctly so that he will be able to hurt our opponents.”

    With the inclusion of six players from the Nigeria Premier League in Keshi’s final 23-man squad, some people are saying that the home-based lads are getting close to their European counterparts but Akpoborie begs to disagree.

    “I watched the Eagles in training before the match against Liberia in Calabar last year and seated where I was, I was able to point out local players when they touched the ball, by their movement and the intensity of their actions.

    “I will say that there is still a big difference between someone that has been coached exclusively in Nigeria and another player who plays in Europe.

    “There is still a lot that the local coaches miss out in training our players which must be addressed before we say players from home and abroad are now at par,” he added.

    Akpoborie then told Goal.com what he expects Keshi to think of achieving at the Nations Cup.

    “First of all, the Nigeria Football Federation should come out and refute reports that they have given the coach a semi-final target.

  • Akpoborie: Eagles need luck to excel

    Akpoborie: Eagles need luck to excel

    Former Nigeria international, Jonathan Akpoborie has declared that the Super Eagles will only win the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations if they have luck on their side.

    Akpoborie noted that the team is not ripe enough to win the trophy because the squad is just evolving. He told Goal.com that he is not a pessimist, but is merely stating the obvious so that Nigerians will not expect too much from the players.

    “Stephen Keshi has done well. The players have responded to training and have shown enough commitment,” said Akpoborie. “There is a new playing culture in the team where the players are not sure of their positions again. The atmosphere is good for the team, but re-building a team takes more than two years to begin to see the benefits.

    “We have good players that are ready to write their names in gold, but the Nations Cup might be coming too soon for them. For the Super Eagles to make it in South Africa, they will need a lot of luck. The atmosphere must be right for them at all times in every match.

    “Without luck I don’t see Nigeria laying their hands on the trophy. And for you to have the luck, you must train and prepare very well. You don’t just sit down and expect that luck will shine on you. You must do your part by preparing very well.

    “I think the team is preparing well and what they now need is for luck to come their way in the tournament,” Akpoborie said. Nigeria will play in Group C alongside Zambia, Burkina Faso and Ethiopia.

  • Soccer Academy: Akpoborie commends Glo for empowering Nigerian Youth

    Soccer Academy: Akpoborie commends Glo for empowering Nigerian Youth

    •10 outstanding players emerge at Lagos screening

    EX- INTERNATIONAL and former Stuttgart of Germany Striker, Jonathan Akpoborie, has described the Glo Soccer Academy as another platform of empowering Nigerian Youth and reducing social vices in the country.

    Akpoborie, who was at the Legacy pitch, National Stadium venue of the Glo Academy screening exercise in Lagos over the weekend, joined the technical team comprising Victor Ikpeba, Tijani Babangida, Anthony Baffoe, Mutiu Adepoju, Zion Ogunfeyinmi, and Segun Odegbami to select the top ten candidates out of thousands of talented footballers that registered for the exercise.

    He described the Academy as the viable platform that thousands of talented youth need to showcase their skill and develop their career.

    According to Akpoborie, “there was nothing like this in our own days, we practically rose through the ranks”. He added that football helped to shape his life and shift his attention from vices that were common among the youths in his younger days in Ajegunle.

    He therefore called on Nigerian youths to make maximum use of the opportunity offered by the Glo Soccer Academy to fast track their football career, noting that this will help to reduce unemployment and social vices among the youth. He called on other corporate organisations to emulate Globacom in developing youth talents in football.

    Also speaking on the Academy, Ex- Super Eagles Midfielder, Mutiu ‘Headmaster’ Adepoju commended Globacom for initiating the Academy.