{"id":156394,"date":"2025-03-24T22:54:05","date_gmt":"2025-03-24T21:54:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/troost-ekong-dismisses-claims-of-super-eagles-over-reliance-on-osimhen"},"modified":"2025-04-04T13:03:19","modified_gmt":"2025-04-04T12:03:19","slug":"troost-ekong-dismisses-claims-of-super-eagles-over-reliance-on-osimhen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/troost-ekong-dismisses-claims-of-super-eagles-over-reliance-on-osimhen","title":{"rendered":"Troost-Ekong dismisses claims of Super Eagles\u2019 over-reliance on Osimhen"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>Super Eagles captain William Troost-Ekong has dismissed suggestions that the Nigerian national team is overly reliant on striker Victor Osimhen.<\/p>\n<p>Osimhen\u2019s brace secured Nigeria a 2-0 victory over Rwanda in the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifier on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>The match marked Osimhen\u2019s first appearance in the World Cup qualifiers after missing the previous four games. In his absence, Nigeria failed to win a single match in the qualifiers.<\/p>\n<p>However, the Galatasaray forward made an immediate impact, scoring two first-half goals at the Amahoro Stadium.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking at his pre-match press conference ahead of Nigeria\u2019s clash with Zimbabwe on Tuesday, Troost-Ekong insisted that the team does not depend on any single player.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen the team plays well together, every individual shines. Even if you look at the Rwanda game, you have to highlight more than just Victor Osimhen\u2019s performance,\u201d the former Watford defender said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think almost every player played his role. The substitutes contributed as well, and even players who featured out of position, like Yusuf [Alhassan], made an impact.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are different factors at play, so I don\u2019t think it\u2019s fair to say we rely on one player\u2014that\u2019s not the mentality of the team.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe work hard together, we support each other, and when we do that, we achieve more as a team.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Nigeria<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. Super Eagles captain William Troost-Ekong has dismissed suggestions that the Nigerian national team is overly reliant on striker Victor Osimhen. Osimhen\u2019s brace secured Nigeria a 2-0 victory over Rwanda in the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifier on Friday. The match marked Osimhen\u2019s first appearance in the World Cup qualifiers after missing the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":156393,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,18],"tags":[254,1816,453,3953],"class_list":["post-156394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-nigeria","tag-osimhen","tag-super-eagles","tag-troost-ekong"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Troost-Ekong dismisses claims of Super Eagles\u2019 over-reliance on Osimhen - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Super Eagles captain William Troost-Ekong has dismissed suggestions that the Nigerian national team is overly reliant on ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/troost-ekong-dismisses-claims-of-super-eagles-over-reliance-on-osimhen\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Troost-Ekong dismisses claims of Super Eagles\u2019 over-reliance on Osimhen\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Super Eagles captain William Troost-Ekong has dismissed suggestions that the Nigerian national team is overly reliant on ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/troost-ekong-dismisses-claims-of-super-eagles-over-reliance-on-osimhen\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-03-24T21:54:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-04-04T12:03:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/03\/sm_1742846969.323687.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"770\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"431\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/troost-ekong-dismisses-claims-of-super-eagles-over-reliance-on-osimhen#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/troost-ekong-dismisses-claims-of-super-eagles-over-reliance-on-osimhen\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Troost-Ekong dismisses claims of Super Eagles\u2019 over-reliance on Osimhen\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-03-24T21:54:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-04-04T12:03:19+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/troost-ekong-dismisses-claims-of-super-eagles-over-reliance-on-osimhen\"},\"wordCount\":241,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/troost-ekong-dismisses-claims-of-super-eagles-over-reliance-on-osimhen#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/03\/sm_1742846969.323687.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Nigeria\",\"Osimhen\",\"super eagles\",\"Troost-Ekong\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/troost-ekong-dismisses-claims-of-super-eagles-over-reliance-on-osimhen#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/troost-ekong-dismisses-claims-of-super-eagles-over-reliance-on-osimhen\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/troost-ekong-dismisses-claims-of-super-eagles-over-reliance-on-osimhen\",\"name\":\"Troost-Ekong dismisses claims of Super Eagles\u2019 over-reliance on Osimhen - 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