Former Super Eagles player, Ifeanyi Udeze, has said the failure of the current team to qualify for the 2022 World Cup made him lose a lot of money.
Udeze who spoke to Punch Newspapers said he was to sign a deal with a company that required the qualification of the Super Eagles for the event in Qatar.
However, despite agreeing on terms, the deal couldn’t go through as the Eagles failed to qualify.
He said, “It’s crazy that we didn’t qualify. I think all media houses right now are really feeling the heat because of that. I was affected because I almost signed a very big deal with a big company but the Eagles crashed out and the deal crashed. We had discussed and agreed on personal terms and all that. What we were just waiting for was for Nigeria to play that game against Ghana and qualify and the next day, I would sign the deal. But since the Eagles did not qualify, there was no way we could sign the deal. I had this deal with a very big company. It really pained me. I lost a lot of money as Nigeria didn’t qualify for the World Cup and that’s life anyway. Sometimes, you win, sometimes, you lose. Life goes on.”
Speaking on his debut for the Eagles, Udeze said, “It was one of the happiest days of my life as a footballer. If you ask any Nigerian playing football, they’ll tell you that their dream is to wear the green and white jersey, so wearing it was a great honour for me. The shirt was heavy, very heavy. I played my first national game against Zambia. I remember that day, when I got to the camp, it was the first time I met some of the players. I had known Julius (Aghahowa) back in the day, we played together in Bendel Insurance, but I met Yakubu Aiyegbeni for the first time. When I got to camp, I was juggling the ball and the first person that spoke was Yakubu, he was asking Julius, ‘Who is this guy? His legs are small, it’s so tiny, are you sure this guy can play football? Are you sure his legs can carry football?’ I heard Julius telling him ‘If this guy plays football for you, you will dash him money’. But immediately after the Zambia game, Yakubu came to me in the dressing room and said ‘You can play ball very well, please give me your number’ and he apologised and that was how we became friends, very good friends. So, in that game against Zambia, the fans were happy with me, I was happy with myself, and the most important thing was that my late father was very happy with me.”
