Eagles Need Mental Character And Patriotism To Perform – Pinnick

Amaju Pinnick, the President of Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has said that the Super Eagles players need mental character and sense of patriotism to be able to perform as he is hopeful they will qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia.
“All what they (Super Eagles) need is mental character, we have to psyche them up. You have to give them the sense of patriotism,” he said.

The NFF boss made the statement after meeting with the NFF Technical Committee on the engagement of Eagles’ Technical Adviser.
“By God’s grace we are going to qualify. We have worked round and have done everything possible.
“We have discussed with the players. There are a lot of things we have to do. There is a level you can go in terms of providing everything.”

He likened the expected spirit in Eagles players to the Portuguese icon, Christiano Ronaldo: “If you see what Ronaldo did, he was injured and he was crying when he was being taken out of the field. That is the kind of mentality we want our players to put up when they are playing for the team.”
On the countries in Nigeria’s group in the World Cup qualifiers, Pinnick was happy Eagles would not be playing supposed minnow countries.
“Like I said, the 20 teams that qualified are all capable. I would rather play Algeria than to play Gabon.

“Gabon have never been to the World Cup and they would want to go to the World Cup. I can assure you,” he concluded.
The hurdles for Nigeria to cross to berth at the Russia 2018 include Algeria, Cameroon and Zambia.