'Football has changed' -  Mikel reveals the difference between 2013 AFCON-winning team and Ivory Coast-bound side

Obi Mikel has revealed the difference between the present Super Eagles squad and the 2013 AFCON winning team.

The Super Eagles are preparing to participate in the Africa Cup of Nations for the 20th time in their history and have been grouped alongside Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea and Guinea-Bissau with the tournament sent to begin in January 2024.

The last time Nigeria won the tournament was in 2013 when they beat all odds to get to the final where they beat Burkina Faso by a solitary goal scored by Sunday Mba.

Mikel who was part of the triumphant team has revealed the difference between the title-winning side and the current crop of players.

"There is a lot of difference, isn't it? Football has changed from ten years ago and dogmatically, it has really changed I think this group of players now are a very young team," Mikel told CAF's Media.

"They play a total different brand of football, so let's hope we can really see good performance by us, the Nigerian team."

Since winning the title, Nigeria have failed to qualify for AFCON on two occasions and their best outing was a third-place finish in the 2019 edition of the tournament.

The present crop of players will be hoping they can make history by winning the title for the fourth time, thereby following the footsteps of the 1980, 1994 and 2013 set, the previous teams to have won the competition for Nigeria.

They begin their campaign with a game against Equatorial Guinea on January 14 before facing the host nation Ivory Coast and then rounding up the group stage by squaring up with Guinea-Bissau.

Abdulkareem Abdulhamid

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