Underrate Cameroon at Your Peril, Fashanu Warns Eagles
Former Wimbledon striker, John Fashanu, has admonished the Super Eagles to be cautious in order not to be clawed by the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon in the Russia 2018 World Cup qualifying fixtures that come up later in the year.
Cameroon, recently crowned the champions of Africa and Nigeria will rekindle their rivalry in Uyo when the first of the two back-to-back matches is played in August.
Fashanu, the Nigeria-born former England international at the weekend, predicted the Group B matches to be difficult given the new lease of life by Cameroon, which claimed their fifth Africa Cup of Nations title penultimate weekend in Gabon in a 2-1 victory over Egypt.
“Cameroon should be given their respect. They worked very hard by coming back from the dead. In the past four years, nobody was thinking about them as their days were felt to be over. But they have come back. They deserved it. They have got good players and most importantly they did it with youth team,” Fashanu warned.
He also emphasised on the unpredictable nature of African football, saying that there is little separating African national teams nowadays because 95 per cent of the players that featured at the Africa Cup of Nations were drawn from the major European football leagues in England, Spain, Germany and Italy.
“Nigeria, the giant of Africa should be in world top 20. That we were not in AFCON for the second time running means there are some problems. What I will say is that we should not be agitated but cautious knowing we are going to take on Cameroon. Football is unpredictable nowadays and all countries have their key players in Europe and not in the African continent,” Fashanu noted.
He called on Nigerian administrators to invest in youth development saying there will be no growth if tomorrow’s stars are not discovered.
“I ask where are the Austin Jay Jay Okochas, Nwankwo Kanus- the young boys with skills? Why should we be declining when we have the finest footballers in the world? You must work on tomorrow’s future. If you don’t discover tomorrow’s future you will not grow. At 17, I was already playing in Premier League. If I was in Nigeria I would not be discovered. You have to go to Europe to be discovered,” observed the ex-Wimbledon star.