By Daily Sports Nigeria on May 31, 2024

Super Eagles midfielder, Wilfred Ndidi, who visited the remodeled Ajegunle Maracana Stadium, Lagos on Wednesday, tells ’TANA AIYEJINA about his experience in the Championship with Leicester City, the upcoming 2026 World Cup qualifiers against South Africa and Benin, and more, in this interview

Having been held by Lesotho and Zimbabwe in their first two games of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers, are the Super Eagles under pressure ahead of their next qualifiers against bitter rivals South Africa and Benin?

If we are honest to ourselves, I think the team is under pressure (to win). We drew both games, they were difficult games. If we had won both games, it would have been much better going to these ones. All the same its football and I think the pressure that comes with this one is actually exciting because we know what we have to do, we know we have to try and win. So, I think we just need to stay focused and do our best and then try to win the games.

As an up-and-coming footballer, one of your first Eagles games was against South Africa and the Eagles lost. How do you rate this squad against the South Africans?

I’ll say they are a good team. When they played against us at the last AFCON they showed they were a very good team and gave us a fight before we beat them on penalties. I feel the AFCON is in the past now, so we are not looking towards that direction anymore. A team you play at the AFCON might be a very different team when you are playing against them now. It all depends on us as a team and the way we want to approach the game. So, it doesn’t matter who we are playing, it all depends on us and how we approach the game.

Last season, you played more as an attack-minded midfielder and scored lots of goals. How do you think this will impact on the national team?

We have our coach (George) Finidi and it’s his tactics that matter, wherever he wants anyone to play. He sees the team the way he wants the team to play. The role I played in Leicester was attacking midfield and I came back to help the defence, which is normal and natural for me. But I don’t know how the coach is going to approach the game against South Africa but wherever he puts me, I’ll be so excited to give my best and help the team to win.

The English Championship is a tough terrain for footballers. How would you describe your one-season stint with Leicester in the second tier division?

To be honest, the Championship is hard, it’s difficult. Having to play sometimes three games in two weeks, having to play weekends and weekdays, travel up and down the country, it’s really difficult but a good experience. When you are in the Premiership, you don’t appreciate what you are missing, but going down to the Championship was an eye-opener for us. So, getting back up, I don’t think we really want to go back there. It’s a really difficult league to play.

When Leicester got relegated, did you think of leaving for another club?

To be honest, it didn’t occur to me because I really felt bad. I love the team, they brought me to the Premier League and I’ve been there for like seven years now and it was not in my mind to leave because I just felt I could actually do something in the Championship and thank God everything worked out and we are back to where we belong.

Leicester manager Enzo Maresca has joined Chelsea. Which impact do you think this will have on the Foxes?

It’s going to have an impact because he’s a great coach. We as players really love Leicester, we just play football. No disrespect to the other coaches, their styles are different but when Maresca came in he actually made us understand football. If you watch the way we played, we were so relaxed because we know what we were doing. I think he’s going to make a bigger impact now that he’s left.

There’s been several reports linking you with Lyon, Juventus and Barcelona. Have you been contacted by these clubs?

Yea, I’ve been but I just try to see how it suits me and my family going forward.

Which club are you moving to?

I don’t know yet, hopefully we will see. There’s nothing hidden under the sun, so we’ll see what happens in the coming weeks.

Ademola Lookman and Victor Boniface had great seasons in Europe and both have been tipped for the CAF Player of The Year award. Who would you root for?

To be honest, anyone of them that wins it is fine. They’ve both done very well for their teams and in all honesty Ademola stands a chance to winning it, hopefully. I just think he stands a better chance.

Source Punch Ng

Posted May 31, 2024

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