BASKING from the euphoria of winning the CAF Footballer of the Year prize, Super Eagles forward Victor Osimhen says the Nigerian side are in “high spirits” for the delayed 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON).
Osimhen broke a 24-year jinx to become the first Nigerian to win Africa’s most coveted individual prize since 1999.
Buoyed by that win, the Napoli star says the Super Eagles will do well when the competition begins in Cote d’Ivoire next month.
“We are ready and preparing very well,” Osimhen told CAF. “The squad is in high spirits. We are raring to go and hope that we shall do well there.”
Nigeria last won the competition in 2013 having clinched the continent’s top gong in 1994 and 1980.
The Super Eagles are in Group A of the competition alongside the hosts Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea, and Equatorial Guinea.
With 10 goals in the qualification race for the tournament, Osimhen who beat Egypt’s Mohamed Salah and Achraf Hakimi of Paris Saint-Germain to win the CAF award, is optimistic the Super Eagles have all it takes to conquer Africa next year.
The Nigerian side ended the last edition of the competition on an abysmal level, losing to Tunisia in the round of 16, their poorest showing in the AFCON for decades.
They also started their 2026 World Cup campaign on a poor note, drawing their first two games against Lesotho and Zimbabwe.
The draws attracted heavy criticism from football fans in the country with calls for Coach Jose Peseiro’s sack reaching a crescendo in the wake of the false start.
But the country’s football authorities are sticking with the Portuguese gaffer who is expected to release his team list for the African football showpiece. Osimhen is billed to lead the lines for the Super Eagles having missed the last edition owing to injury.
