TheCable

At age 52, Stephen Keshi would be leading out Nigeria for the 52nd time for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifier against Congo at the U.J Esuene Stadium in Calabar.

Keshi’s reign as Super Eagles’ coach began on November 11, 2011 with a goalless draw in an international friendly against Botswana at the Ogbemudia Stadium in Benin.

Since then, he has played a total of 51 matches winning 23, drawing 19 and losing nine. The team scored an impressive 80 goals and conceded 47.

He spoke to Cafonline.com.

You clocked 52 in January and on Saturday, you will be playing your 52nd game in charge as the manager of the Super Eagles, what do you make of the number and coincidence?

It is you that is just telling me this [broad smiles] because I don’t really have an idea about this until now. What will the figures do? I just want to win the game against Congo on Saturday and make Nigerians proud and that is all.

You were the captain in the 1990s when Nigeria beat Congo in Point Noire and in Lagos in the qualifiers for the 1994 World Cup, can the present squad achieve similar feat, starting with the game on Saturday?

Of course, they can do it. If they have the desire to do it, they can do it. Since we started intensive training on Saturday, I have seen a high level of concentration and the willingness to play a good game. Frankly, I feel everybody can do anything that he set up his mind to do and since they have the courage and the determination, we would be ready to play good football against Congo on Saturday.

After the game against Congo on Saturday, the team would be off for the second game in a space of five days against South Africa in Cape Town, how challenging is this for the team?

We don’t have any problem with that since that is also applicable to South Africa and every other team in the qualifying series. We just need to organise ourselves because we already have our game plans; we just need to be focused on the game against Congo first.

You have achieved so much with the Super Eagles by winning the Africa Cup of Nations for the first time since 1994 and reaching the second round of the World Cup for the first time since 1998. What else are you aspiring to achieve with the Super Eagles?

I still feel that this team can be much stronger than we have. This team is not yet at the level that I want because we are still building; adding and subtracting and looking at the players that can help. There is nothing wrong for Nigeria to have a very solid team in the next… a strong team that can compete against the elite teams in the world and this was actually part of my dreams: to have a very strong team for Nigeria.

There have been a lot of distractions around Nigerian football since the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, has this not affected the team in anyway?

We don’t want to get involved with that because that is just administrative problems and it has nothing to do with what we do on the pitch. My job is on the pitch and we have told the players the need for us to be focused on our jobs squarely on the pitch. Our own job is to make Nigerians proud and happy and our focus now is Saturday’s game against Congo.

Yes, you are right to say its administrative problem but it has partly affected you since you don’t have a formal contract going into the games against Congo and South Africa, why did you take the gamble?

Initially, I didn’t want to do it because I was done with Nigerian football having coached the team for over two and half years but I got a lot of calls from respectable Nigerians who wanted me to continue with the work; and sometimes when people talk to you, you have to listen.

Brazil 2014 World Cup has gone, but are there some things you would have done differently?

Differently? Maybe I would have loved that anything that has to do with finance (money) had long been sorted out before we got to the World Cup because it is always a delicate matter when you are in a tournament. This could take away the concentration of the players and since we had the money issue, their concentration level was not the same but we kept pushing them. This is what I told them that anything financial should be sorted long before we got to Brazil but the players and the NFF could not settle all of this. But what a shame that it came out that way at the World Cup but all that is in the past now.