Toyin Ibitoye, a veteran sports journalist, has said he supports keeping Super Eagles coach Eric Chelle for another contract.
He believes the coach has shown he can build a team that is both disciplined and competitive, which is needed to win future Africa Cup of Nations titles.
Ibitoye mentioned that even though Nigeria didn’t win the last AFCON, the way they played was very impressive.
He said, “Nigeria didn’t win the tournament, but the way they played won over a lot of people.” “What matters is how well they played, their discipline on and off the pitch.
Sometimes luck plays a big role in who wins. Based on what we saw in the last tournament, Coach Eric Chelle has done enough to deserve talks about renewing his contract.”
Ibitoye, who worked as the media officer for the Super Eagles from 2015 to 2020, also said that changing coaches too often has broken the team’s consistency and made it hard to qualify for the World Cup.
He believes keeping Chelle will help the team build on its progress and achieve better results.
He said, “We had about three different coaches during the World Cup qualifiers, and naturally, the results weren’t good.”
Looking ahead to the next two AFCON tournaments in 2026 and 2028, Ibitoye thinks Chelle has the potential to lead Nigeria to victory, provided they have good preparation and a bit of luck.
He said, “I believe that if Eric Chelle continues the work we saw in the last AFCON, with luck on our side and good preparation, there’s a strong chance Nigeria can win one or even both of the upcoming tournaments.”
Chelle, who has asked for a raise from $50,000 to $130,000 a month to improve his working conditions and support his technical staff, has denied any plans to leave the team and confirmed his commitment to helping Nigeria in upcoming international friendlies.
