The day after their exquisite and efficient
performance against the Bafana Bafana of South Africa (conquerors of seven
–time champions and host nation Egypt) that saw them reach the semi finals of
AFCON 2019, the Super Eagles received pledges of more dollar rain from two of
Africa’s richest businessmen.
On a visit to the team’s Le Meridien Cairo Airport
hotel on Thursday morning, during which he urged the players to even redouble
their efforts in order to cross the semi final stage on Sunday, President of
the Nigeria Football Federation, Mr. Amaju Melvin Pinnick put a call through to
the two well -known philanthropists and tasked them to commit to supporting the
team.
While Dangote made a pledge of $50,000 to the team
for every goal in their remaining two matches at the championship, Otedola
pledged the sum of $25,000 for every goal.
Alhaji Aliko Dangote, who holds Nigeria’s
second highest national honour (GCON) is the President of Dangote Group and is
ranked as the richest person of African descent in the world. The Dangote Group
has interests in various commodities in Nigeria and other African countries.
Oil baron Femi Otedola has
recently been involved in a number of commendable interventions for ailing
former Nigerian international players, including 1980 AFCON winning team
–captain Christian Chukwuemeka Chukwu and goalkeeper Peter Fregene.
Further words of encouragement
came from His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari (GCFR) following Wednesday
night’s victory, with the President urging “the team and their handlers to be
focused, disciplined and scale the remaining two hurdles to glory.”
It would be recalled that
following their Round of 16 defeat of Cup holders Cameroon in Alexandria on
Saturday, businessman Captain Hosea Wells Okunbo pledged the sum of $20,000 for
every player, while Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu came good with $5,000 for every
player.
NFF’s Official Optimum Partner
AITEO also weighed in with the sum of $75,000, being $25,000 for each of the
three goals scored by the team against the Indomitable Lions.
Rohr urges focus, total commitment ahead semi
final clash
Even before knowing the identity of their AFCON 2019
semi final opponent, Super Eagles’ technical adviser Gernot Rohr on Thursday
morning charged his wards to be focused and fully committed to the task at hand
as they countenance another tough session on Sunday night at the Cairo
International Stadium.
“The next match in a championship is always the
toughest, so it is always important to approach it that way. That is why we
must now forget what we achieved against South Africa in our quarter final match
and start to build up towards the semi final.
“There is no time to rest on our oars. We must make
all the sacrifices we can now to achieve our objectives at this tournament. We must
stay focused and be fully committed.”
The three –time champions were back at the Aerosport
pitch inside the Cairo Airport on Thursday morning to begin training for Sunday’s
encounter, which would be against the winner of the Algeria/Cote d’Ivoire
fixture.
Also on Thursday morning, the management of the Le
Meridien Cairo Airport hotel presented a big cake to the Super Eagles for the
2-1 win over South Africa on Wednesday that has taken Nigeria into the last
four of Africa’s biggest and most prestigious football championship.
The hotel manager, Atef Wilson, on behalf of the
management presented the cake to Coach Gernot Rohr and forward Odion Ighalo,
who received on behalf of the team.
Victory over South Africa took Franco –German Gernot
Rohr’s record with Nigeria to 20 wins in 34 matches, of which he has drawn five
and lost nine.
0 comments:
Post a Comment