Alex Iwobi, a Nigerian professional footballer, has urged the Nigerian Football Federation to provide infrastructure that matches the skill level of the Super Eagles players.

Iwobi, who plays for Premier League club Everton, made the call following Nigeria’s shocking 1-0 defeat to Guinea-Bissau in an Africa Cup of Nations qualifier. Many fans and pundits have attributed the loss to the poor state of the pitch at the National Stadium in Abuja.

While Iwobi and manager Jose Peseiro diplomatically refused to comment on the state of the pitch after the match, Peseiro later admitted that the Super Eagles played on a better pitch in Guinea-Bissau than in Nigeria. Iwobi had earlier revealed in an interview with The Beautiful Game Podcast that the Super Eagles players faced many challenges, including playing on poor pitches, which affected their performance.

Iwobi believes that having better infrastructure, including a good playing surface, would make the Super Eagles unstoppable and difficult to beat.

“I’m not going to say something that gets me into trouble. For example we don’t even know if we are going to have a nice pitch when we play,” Iwobi said on The Beautiful Game Podcast.

“Obviously we’ve got a new coach now and we played Sierra Leone in a difficult game and we just about beat them 2-1, then we played So Tome and Principe and beat them 10-0, but we played on a great pitch.

He expressed confidence in the team’s ability, noting that most of the players play for top European clubs and are used to playing on great pitches that allow them to manipulate the ball and play freely.

“A lot of us play in Europe now so we play in great pitches where it’s easy to just manipulate the ball, let the ball do the work, play freely.

“If we had that in Nigeria, I feel like it would be difficult to beat us. I am confident enough to say that not many teams can beat us.

“Having a good pitch, if we have that, I feel like we’d be unstoppable. Just a pitch with grass, no crops”

Iwobi is the only player to have played the full duration of all the matches played by the national team since the appointment of Peseiro as coach.

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