Former Super Eagles head coach, Sunday Oliseh, has criticised the Super Eagles for celebrating their third-place finish at the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations, AFCON, warning that such actions promote a culture of mediocrity within Nigerian football, following Nigeria’s bronze medal victory after a 4-2 penalty shootout win against Egypt in Morocco, which marked the team’s ninth bronze medal in the tournament’s history, with Oliseh revealing that the celebrations drew ridicule from African and European pundits, saying, “Before the AFCON final in Rabat, a video went viral of our superheroes [Super Eagles players] celebrating widely for winning third place against Egypt,” and adding, “From my seat in the media tribune, I watched as African and European pundits mocked us. They could not believe it,” while recalling a time when finishing second at the AFCON was considered a failure in Nigeria, stressing, “There was a time when the Super Eagles shed tears after finishing second place at the AFCON. Because to us, anything but the trophy was a failure. Celebrating third place builds a culture of mediocrity.”
