Nigerian striker Emmanuel Dennis admitted that the state of football in the national team is on the decline following the Super Eagles’ failure to qualify for the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup, Saturday PUNCH reports.
Dennis who plies is trade in the English Premier League with Nottingham Forest stated that he was heartbroken that the Nigerian national team failed to qualify for the biggest football tournament in the World.
The Super Eagles of Nigeria were knocked out of qualification by the Black Stars of Ghana in the third round of World Cup qualifiers, crashing out on away goals after playing 0-0 in Ghana and 1-1 at the Abuja stadium in Nigeria.
Almost seven months after crashing out of the World Cup qualifiers, Dennis admitted that he is still not ready to talk about the failure as it still haunts him.
Speaking on SuperSport show ‘In The Premier League Chair’, Dennis noted that despite having good players, Nigerian football has not been up to par in the past few years.
“A lot of people ask me that and I don’t really want to answer because it breaks my heart. I really wanted to go to the World Cup for the country,” Dennis told SuperSport.
“Because Nigerian football for the past few years hasn’t been doing good. We’ve been struggling but we have a lot of quality players, very good players.”
On the vandalisation of the Moshood Abiola National Stadium after the 1-1 draw that ended Nigeria’s World Cup dreams, Dennis believes that it is because of the fans’ passion for the game.
“You could see the disappointment in the fans when we didn’t qualify. They broke into the stadium. That’s people that are passionate about football,” the 24-year-old explained.
“It’s really heartbreaking and something I’m trying to forget about. It just stays in my head.”
Jose Peseiro’s men were conquered by the Desert Foxes in a friendly game at the Miloud Hadefi Olympic Complex, Oran, in September.
Terem Moffi gave Nigeria the lead in the first half, but a controversial penalty converted by Riyad Mahrez ended the first half in a 1-1 draw. Youcef Atal completed a comeback for the Algerians in the 62 minutes that left the Super Eagles to a narrow 2-1 defeat.
