Finidi George has asked Nigerians to allow him do his job after the Super Eagles’ disappointing 1-1 draw against South Africa in their 2026 World Cup qualifier on Friday.
The draw marked a challenging start for George as the Super Eagles manager.
In a heavily criticized move, George left Bayer Leverkusen’s prolific striker Victor Boniface, who scored 30 goals last season, as an unused substitute.
The match saw Turkey-based Fisayo Dele-Bashiru score Nigeria’s equalizer after they had fallen behind to South Africa’s Bafana Bafana.
Answering questions during a post-match conference on why he left Boniface out of the starting line up, Finidi explained, “He was supposed to come in but when we heard [Semi] Ajayi complain that he had a knock, he couldn’t continue. So we had to reverse that.”
The former Enyimba man and NPFL winner promised that the 23-year-old will get his chance in the next game against Benin Republic before asking the media to allow them to do their job.
“For me it is what you can give to me on the field, everyone wants this or that player to play but at the end of the day if the player is not performing you guys will still be shouting ‘take him off’,” he added.
“So, let us do our job. We know who is good to go, we have another game so definitely we’ll see how we can play these guys,” Finidi concluded.
Nigeria failed to qualify for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar and has managed just three points from a possible nine in their opening three qualifiers for the 2026 tournament.
