Keshi: What Blatter Told Me

Super Eagles head coach Stephen Keshi has revealed that he is motivated to making the Eagles perform very well at the World Cup by the encouraging words FIFA president Sepp Blatter gave him after the finals of the 3rd African Nations Championship in South Africa on Saturday.

Blatter,who was a special guest at the finals had a chat with the Big Boss during the presentation of bronze medals to the Super Eagles in Cape Town last Saturday.

"I feel really motivated to work harder and make the Super Eagles a force at the World Cup. He told that I am doing a great job and that he has been following my progress as a coach and that he is happy with me,'revealed Keshi who led Nigeria to her third African Nations Cup triumph eraly last year in South Africa before qualifying Nigeria for the FIFA World Cup holding this summer in Brazil. 'He (Blatter) also expressed his joy with the performance of indigenous coaches and urged me to ensure that the Nigerian team come to Brazil as the surprise team.'

Asked to assess the performance of the team he took to CHAN, Keshi expressed satisfaction with the players adding that they may not have been the best from the domestic league but that they represented the country well.

He said that some of the players would certainly be invited to fight for places in the World Cup team but would have to do better than they did at CHAN to displace their foreign based counterparts.