Super Eagles striker Terem Moffi has made a painful admission about Nigeria's World Cup miss, revealing things won't remain the same with the current crop of players when the next edition arrives, Soccernet.ng reports.
The 27-year-old was a part of Jose Peseiro's team that lost the AFCON 2023 final to Ivory Coast. He also featured in five of Nigeria's ten 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.
Of the five games the Portugal Liga winner played, Nigeria sealed one win. Coincidentally, in the only victory, Victor Osimhen was present.
To broaden the context, Nigeria failed to win a game when Victor Osimhen did not play. With the Galatasaray striker on the pitch, the Super Eagles won four of five qualifiers.
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World Cup: Terem Moffi makes painful Super Eagles confession
While Nigeria can qualify for the 2030 edition of the World Cup, set to be jointly hosted by Morocco, Portugal, and Spain. The FC Porto loanee believes that most of the current crop of players will not be around to witness the tournament.
In the current Super Eagles setup, only Alex Iwobi, Kelechi Iheanacho and Wilfred Ndidi participated in the 2018 World Cup. Having missed the 2022 and 2026 editions, a huge portion of the remaining players might never play at the Mundial.
With an average age of 26.8, most of the Nigerian players will be in the latter part of their careers when the 2030 World Cup kicks off, and Moffi believes it'll be almost impossible for them to be a part of that squad.
“That's what the fans don't understand. The World Cup is every four years, and not everyone gets to be a part of that,” the ex-Lorient striker said in an interview with AY Suga.
“We've missed two World Cups now. It's devastating for the fans, but even more so for us.
“I'm 27 now, in the next World Cup I'll be 31, and most of the squad will be in their 30's as well. It's almost impossible for us to be there if we're being totally honest.
“Young players will come in. The oldest in the squad right now is Semi [32], so, going by that, it'll be quite difficult.
“For some of us, we might have to watch from home. How do we tell our children that we had two chances to be at the World Cup and we didn't take it?
“It's horrible to think about,” Terem Moffi concluded.
Moffi hopes Nigeria can amend for their errors with victory in the AFCON 2027 tournament. The journey to that dream starts with the qualifiers in September, but before that, they have a friendly to play against Portugal tomorrow.
