Peseiro explains why he visited Super Eagles players in England

Jose Peseiro says his recent trip to England to see some Nigerian players was necessitated by his desire to build a very strong Super Eagles team capable of challenging for honours, starting with the 2024 Africa Cup of Nations in Cote D’Ivoire.

Peseiro told Mirror Football in an interview while he was in England that it was necessary to see, feel and watch the players in action.

‘This is part of the longer plan,’ he told Mirror Football. ‘It’s my strategy to see for myself our players in training, in practice and it’s important I speak with the coaches, with the fitness coaches, also.

‘I watched seven matches and I was at three practices to observe, to stay in contact with the players and speak with them. It’s different and it’s important I understand what they do there.

‘I had good meetings with the coaches, shared some points about our players because normally we are not with them for too much time, but the club coach works with them for more time and can advise me or speak to me with more objectivity about what they can do.’

Peseiro also watched a number of Nigeria-born players who are still eligible to play for their fatherland.

‘There are many, many players at the moment that can play for Nigeria,’ Peseiro says. ‘With that, it’s not easy, our work.
‘You receive some information or when you watch many players on TV or live, you can discover more players, more players, more players.

‘I was in some matches when I was in England to see some players, then at the same time we discover, ‘well that player can play for us, also’, normally young players.

‘There are many good players with quality, capacity and good training. For us, if we want to win the next AFCON, I am happy because I have many players with quality to create a good national team.

‘But it’s not easy to choose the right players. We try to see them in the match, after that I try to call them for our practice and our friendly games, because we want to create a small group with quality for developing in training and practice to implement our ideas to win the next AFCON.

‘But there are a lot of players, and they need to show the maximum demand and motivation to play for Nigeria. Quality, of course, but demand and motivation to play for us.’