Samson Siasia: Yakmut says he can lead Eagles to win WORLD CUP

If you are still disappointed that Coach Samson Siasia failed to qualify Nigeria for the AFCON 2017 in Gabon, just dab your tears.

Siasia is capable of delivering the biggest trophy of all, the World Cup.

AL-Hassan Yakmut, a former Director-General of the National Sports Commission (NSC), says he is confident about  Samson Siasia’ that he can lead the Super Eagles to win the 2018 World Cup.

Yakmut in an interview on Thursday in Abuja said  that Siasia has proved his capability with the crop of players he featured against Egypt on Friday and Tuesday.

“I have confidence in Siasia. He has proven that through the quality of players he lined up in the two 2017 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifying matches.

“We did not have this quality of players in the last one month.

“The performance of the Super Eagles in the second match with Egypt on Tuesday, technically, was superlative.

“But there were no goals because we were not lucky, in spite of the good work and the scoring chances that were not properly utilised.

“The quality of players and the contributions that were coming from the bench was fantastic.

“The team is more promising than the Super Eagles we have some few weeks ago. And this is very commendable,’’ he said.

Yakmut said the fact that the Super Eagles could not qualify for 2017 AFCON did not mean that Nigeria was no longer among the best on the African continent.

“The match was a full testimony of a competent coach and the emergence of a new Super Eagles that is very promising,’’ the former NSC D-G said.

Yakmut advised the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to maintain the current players and the technical crew in the Super Eagles.

“The NFF must make sure that it sustains this team, retains and maintains the players, as well as reduce the turnover of the team’s technical crew.

“This is because the technical crew has to be very familiar with the players as individuals, their psyche, competence, ability to coordinate and understand themselves.

“The fewer times we change the technical crew the better we will get results. This is a team that will take us to the World Cup,’’ he said.

Yakmut pointed out that Nigeria was not disgraced out of the AFCON qualifiers, adding that the Egyptians were just lucky.

“What we have lost is only the AFCON ticket. But I can say that this current crop of Super Eagles players and technical crew can take us to the World Cup.

“We were not disgraced out of the Nations Cup qualifiers, because the team that would have given us problem did not do so,’’ he said.