• I’m Happy To Be Back — Uzoho
Former Green Eagles winger, Adegoke Adelabu, has said coach Eric Chelle needs free hand to excel at the fast approaching 35th Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco.
The coach had on Thursday, released a 28-man list of players for the AFCON assignment.
Speaking with The Guardian on Friday, Adelabu, a sports scientist, said; “The coach has been employed to do his job, and at this stage, he should be given a free hand so that if there is any problem, he would be held responsible.”
There were insinuations in some quarters on Wednesday that lobbyists who wanted to have their players on the list were responsible for the delay of the final list.
“You know in this country, it is difficult to know why people do what they do because there could be lot of forces at work behind the closed doors,” Adelabu said. “Later, we may hear that the players were forced on the coach. There are too much cover ups in every area to conceal the truth. Let us wait for the outcome.”
Meanwhile, goalkeeper Francis Uzoho was in superb form on Thursday night at the Allianz Stadion in Vienna, where his club Omonia Nicosia defeated hosts Rapid Wien 1–0 in a UEFA Conference League match.
The Nigerian international denied the Austrian side not just an equaliser but also any hope of victory, producing several key saves to secure Omonia’s second group stage win in five matches and their second consecutive victory.
Uzoho had also kept a clean sheet in the club’s previous outing, a 2–0 win over Dynamo Kyiv.
The 27-year-old, whose recall to the Super Eagles squad for the 35th Africa Cup of Nations was announced on Thursday, celebrated the news in style with yet another commanding performance.
His shutout in Vienna was his third clean sheet in five matches across all competitions, two in four UEFA Conference League games and one in the Cyprus league.
Uzoho, who has kept 13 clean sheets in 35 appearances for Nigeria, is returning to the national team for the first time since March 2024, when he was on the bench during the Super Eagles’ 2–0 loss to Mali in an international friendly.
He last featured for Nigeria at the AFCON 2023 Round of 16 clash against Cameroon in Cote d’Ivoire, coming on for the injured Stanley Nwabali in the final 10 minutes of the match, which the Eagles won 2–0 courtesy of an Ademola Lookman brace.
