Super Eagles coach Eric Chelle has expressed his desire to win more trophies for Nigeria after winning the Unity Cup at the GTech Community Stadium in Brentford, London.
Chelle led the Super Eagles to victory over Jamaica in the final of the second edition of the tournament, 21 years after winning the first-ever organised Unity Cup.
In 2004, Nigeria beat the Reggae Boyz 2-0 to win the maiden edition in Charlton, but they went through a penalty shootout to claim a 5-4 victory on Saturday, after 2-2.draw in regulation time
Chelle, who had begun his reign with a win and a draw in the troubled 2026 World Cup qualifiers, was delighted to lift his first piece of silverware as a coach and hopes to add more as Nigeria go into the 2025 AFCON in Morocco by December.
“This is my first trophy as a coach. When I was a football player, I won lots of trophies. I hope with this trophy I can bring Nigeria another trophy,” Chelle said.
At the Unity Cup, the Franco-Malian coach had a blend of home-based and foreign stars, as they remain hopeful of picking a ticket to the World Cup in the USA, Canada and Mexico before the AFCON.
“We have an important goal in September. So I saw this as an opportunity to give many players a chance to show what they can do. And I’m really happy and proud of them because, in just two or three training sessions, they worked really hard. That’s the reality.
“During this tournament, we scored goals, we created chances, and we showed some very good things in our game. But of course, we still need to work. We have weaknesses. In today’s game, for instance, we made 22 mistakes — that’s a lot.
“We need to improve, to step up as a group and as a team, especially if we want to qualify for the World Cup.”
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The Super Eagles will face Russia in another international friendly on Friday before resuming their 2026 World Cup qualifying campaign in September.
With four games left in the series, Chelle’s men will face Rwanda at home and South Africa away in September, while their last two games are against Lesotho away and the Benin Republic at home in October.
They need to win their remaining matches to stand a chance of qualifying as they are currently fourth in Group C with just seven points, six points behind leaders South Africa.
[Editor: Paul Akhagbemhe]
