Former Super Eagles captain Joseph Yobo has said that Alex Iwobi can push his international career beyond 130 appearances. Recall that Iwobi became the fourth Super Eagles player to reach 100 caps against Portugal in June, more than a decade after making his Nigeria debut, joining Yobo, Vincent Enyeama and Ahmed Musa as the only players to make at least 100 appearances for the Nigeria national team.
Speaking to ESPN, Yobo revealed that he wouldn’t be surprised if the Fulham midfielder manages to make more than 130 appearances for the Super Eagles before he retires.
Stressing that Iwobi is a committed national team player, Joseph added that he can only hope injuries won’t derail that target.
His words, “I wouldn’t be surprised to see Alex getting to 130 or 130-plus because he’s still very active.
He’s still performing at the highest level. You always pray and hope you don’t get injured because these things can derail you.
But knowing Alex, his professional mindset, his commitment and everything, I just hope that he goes as far as he can.
Because I think the 130 barrier can be broken. Easily. Especially with a player like Alex, who is very committed.
First of all, it is your commitment to your craft, which is the skill set that you have as a professional footballer.
You have to act like one because in this line of career, we see people that are not so disciplined.
It takes a disciplined player to perform well, and it takes a player who is performing well for the coaches to always pick that player.
Football is very competitive. So you can’t maintain the same standard and the same form for a long time without having competition.
In my generation it was always difficult, where sometimes certain people tried to come in between, to make you not honour your national team, and then you had to make a decision.
For people like myself, we always made the decision to play for the national team regardless of what happened.
Even if you came back and sat on the bench, we didn’t care. We made that sacrifice for the national team.”
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