A Former African Best, Victor Ikpeba, in an interview with Saturday Telegraph’s CHARLES OGUNDIYA extoled the virtue of Super Eagles’ forward, Ademola Lookman, after the striker, was named the CAF’s Player Of The Year on Monday. Excerpts:
Few days ago, another Nigerian, Ademola Lookman, won the Africa’s Footballer of the Year Award, an award you have won before, how does it feel as a Nigerian?
Well, when you look at the difference in the 90s, we were winning it and were also doing well in AFCON, we won the Olympics and doing well at the World Cup. I think that is what is just short of this generation. I think what Victor (Osimhen) and (Ademola) Lookman have done for Nigerian football is fantastic. Again, we should remember that Nigerians are not short of talent. It took us about 24 years to win it, Victor (Osimhen) won it last year. That was a very long time. So we have six Nigerians that have won the award. So congratulations to Lookman. I wasn’t surprised. His performance at the Nations Cup was brilliant, but to top it off with winning the EUROPA Cup with Atlanta shows that he is talented. I’m very proud of what he has done. He’s a very humble young man, very focused about his football. He should be a role model for our young boys. He has not involved in negative issues. He is not someone that you see around every time on the social media pages making noises. It’s all about his football, which is good. I think it’s very deserving for once, he was the only player nominated for the Ballon d’Or and the FIFA Player of the Year top 20. So it’s logical that it went from better to best. And for the people of the Southwest of Nigeria, I want to congratulate them again, because I think that someone from that part of Nigeria is winning it again after late Rashidi Yekini won it in 1993. I think people from the Southwest are very, very proud of Lookman.
In 1993 and 1994, Yekini and Emmanuel Amuneke won it back-to-back, same as 1996 and 1997 when Kanu Nwankwo and yourself won it after one another, now it is the turn of Osimhen and Lookman, can we get the consistency back?
It just shows the talent these two players have at the moment. So it’s great for Nigerian football. I want to use the opportunity to say congratulations to the Super Eagles, to Atalanta, to Nigerians, to the NFF, especially to Lookman because he has to show that he is good enough. He has to show the talent on the pitch from week to week. And what happened in the final of the EUROPA Cup will never be forgotten for one player to score hattrick. That will go down in history forever.
Do we have a player that can win it again in 2025?
Yes, because we have two players that will be competing for us, Osimhen and Lookman. That is what we have now, except something else comes up. Another player has to pop up from nowhere. And start battling with those guys. Also you can count on (Mohammed) Salah for next year because Liverpool is doing well in the league as well as in the Champions League. The fight will come from Salah. I think also if Osimhen moves up to a better club in Europe, I mean one of the top five leagues in Europe, England, Spain, Italy, Germany and France, because I don’t think he has a chance playing in Turkey. Going to any of these leagues, it will be a direct competition between Lookman and Salah. So these are the three top African players we have at the moment and they will be in the mix for next year. But if Lookman continues with his form, Atalanta is leading Serie A and they are doing well in the Champions League. So it’s looking good for him. The calendar year for the award is January to December and everything starts up all over again in the month of January to December. So I actually wish our boys Lookman and Osimhen the best to contest for it again next season.
Lookman was not born here in Nigeria and just switched allegiance to Nigeria like two years ago having won the U-20 World Cup with England, do you see the trend continuing, seeing Nigerians born outside dominating African football?
Why not? It’s not new. It is not new for our parents to move abroad and stay put and have kids over there. It’s a question of making decisions. So, Lookman made a decision to play for Nigeria because he thinks he will have more possibility to play at the World Cup, play at the Nations Cup. So, if they wish to say you want to play for England, we see players playing one or twice for England and after then you don’t see them again. So, what is the joy of playing for England one or two times and you never play again? So, I think Alex Iwobi, Ola Aina, Semi Ajayi and Lookman already made that decision. They have been consistent for Eagles, the struggles have been there for all to see. But you should not forget African football is difficult now. You have to work hard to win the AFCON. You want to qualify for the World Cup. But so far, they have been showing an example that they are really committed for the good of football in the Super Eagles.
The World Cup, we are in dire situation for this World Cup qualifier, do you see these guys getting the needed results come next year to get us back to the World Cup?
We have to qualify for the World Cup and the World Cup is in America. It is challenging right now because we are at the back foot. And what I want to say to the players is that this is not the time to criticize them. Yes, the last game against Rwanda was not a good one, although we’ve already qualified and sometimes the players tend to lose focus, but if it ended as a draw, maybe Nigerians won’t have complained, so, the attack against this player is justified. But Nigerians were disappointed they didn’t beat Rwanda. So I think they will redeem themselves. I think we come back to the month of March and we say a back-to-back win will really bring us back to the pathway. We have to win our next two games in the next World Cup qualifiers. We have to win all our games to qualify for the World Cup. I still have faith that we will get there. Because I’m very sure the likes of Benin, Rwanda and South Africa will drop points somewhere. So it’s for us to take advantage of that and win our games.
Nigeria already qualified for the AFCON, do you see the Eagles on the platform after finishing second at the last edition?
We have the talents, we have the vision. Sometimes you need an element of luck, commitment, hard work, the boys, they need a lot of energy and hard work to get to the finals of the AFCON. So, I would like the players to continue with that mentality. At the AFCON, they should fight to return to the podium. So, I do believe that this team is good enough to get to the last four and anything can happen from there.
