MTN Nigeria yesterday hosted players and officials of the Super Eagles to a welcome breakfast in recognition of their exceptional performance at the just-concluded 2023 African Cup of Nations (AFCON) in Cote d’Ivoire.
The telecom giant praised the tenacity and resilience shown by the players all through the tournament.
Speaking at the breakfast meeting, the CEO of MTN Nigeria, Karl Toriola, said that the quality of football and defence by the Nigerian team was amazing, adding that his firm is proud of the excellent performance and commitment shown by the team.
Toriola observed that the firm had always supported Nigerian Sports and would continue to give support to the country’s sports development.
He said: “MTN has always supported the Nigerian Football Federation; we have done it through the good times and bad times. We are very proud of the Super Eagles’ performance and that they got to the final… unfortunately, we met the most formidable opponents, who were practically playing for their lives in terms of the Ivorians.
“The tenacity and resilience our players showed all through the tournament, the quality of football and defence was amazing; we are proud of them and we are waiting for the next tournament that is going to be better.”
We are proudly Nigerian and we are proud to support the football team.”
Also speaking at the event, the Chairman of MTN Nigeria, Ernest Ndukwe, noted that sports is a unifying force and has a very important role to play in nation-building.
He said: “We are building a nation and sports has a very important role to play in nation-building; it is a unifying force, if we support football, we are promoting unity and we must do everything to support the growth of sport in the environment.”
In reply, Super Eagles’ Assistant Captain, Williams Troost-Ekong said: “We gave everything we had to make the nation proud, we will be better in the future, this is the beginning of something new.”
After the event, team goalkeeper, Stanley Nwabali, told The Guardian that the team did its best to ensure that Nigeria won the trophy, but regretted that their wishes never came through.
Nwabali said: “To be honest, what we achieved was a team game because everybody fought for the team. I feel bad that we lost the trophy, but that is sports for you… I think it was the Ivoirians’ day.”
