{"id":18241,"date":"2019-11-29T15:50:59","date_gmt":"2019-11-29T15:50:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.com\/nigeria\/?p=18241"},"modified":"2019-11-29T15:50:59","modified_gmt":"2019-11-29T15:50:59","slug":"one-of-the-hardest-leagues-in-the-world-super-eagles-star-on-the-spl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/one-of-the-hardest-leagues-in-the-world-super-eagles-star-on-the-spl","title":{"rendered":"\u201cOne Of The Hardest Leagues In The World\u201d \u2013 Super Eagles Star on The SPL"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Nigeria footballers have been encouraged to move to Saudi Arabia and embrace \u2018one of the hardest leagues\u2019 in the world.<\/p>\n<p>Super Eagles skipper,<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ahmed_Musa\"> Ahmed Musa<\/a>, who plies his trade with Al Nassr in the Saudi Premier League, has revealed that the sincere hospitality and warm affection of the Saudi people has made his stay in the country worthwhile.<\/p>\n<p>The 27-year-old scored seven goals and registered as many assists as defending champions Al Nassr cruised to another league title last term.<\/p>\n<p>However, the SPL has seen five different winners since 2012 a testament to the strength and competitiveness of the Saudi championship.<\/p>\n<p>There are a few Nigerian born footballers such as Al Shabab left back Imran Ilyas Bakur and Abha\u2019s Reuben Gabriel and some others in the second division who have already made Saudi Arabia their home. Ahmed Musa however encourages more of his compatriots to embrace the Saudi challenge.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe SPL is one of the hardest leagues. The people may look at it as very easy, but I don\u2019t think so,\u201d the Super Eagles skipper told the Saudi Gazette as monitored Soccernet.ng.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMany people think the league is easy, but when you play here you know it\u2019s not that easy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe fans here are crazy about football, they\u2019re not the same as Europeans.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I first came here, it was difficult for me because of how much fans love football \u2014 they don\u2019t want to lose! Over here, fans are always crazy when you lose a game.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne of the best moments here is whenever I go out [and] everyone wants to take a picture with you. I give the Saudi fans credit for this.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBack in my country [Nigeria], everyone always comes to Saudi, so I know the lifestyle here. So, nobody asks me how I cope or what I do in Saudi because most Nigerians are always here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe now have some four Nigerian players playing in the Saudi Professional League. I would love for more [Nigerian players] to come and play here.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nigeria footballers have been encouraged to move to Saudi Arabia and embrace \u2018one of the hardest leagues\u2019 in the world. Super Eagles skipper, Ahmed Musa, who plies his trade with Al Nassr in the Saudi Premier League, has revealed that the sincere hospitality and warm affection of the Saudi people has made his stay in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":18244,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,18],"tags":[174,1047,115],"class_list":["post-18241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-football-in-nigeria","tag-nigeria-football-league","tag-nigerian-sports"],"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>\u201cOne Of The Hardest Leagues In The World\u201d \u2013 Super Eagles Star on The SPL - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Nigeria footballers have been encouraged to move to Saudi Arabia and embrace \u2018one of the hardest leagues\u2019 in the world.Super Eagles skipper, Ahmed Musa\" \/>\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\/all-news\/one-of-the-hardest-leagues-in-the-world-super-eagles-star-on-the-spl\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u201cOne Of The Hardest Leagues In The World\u201d \u2013 Super Eagles Star on The SPL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Nigeria footballers have been encouraged to move to Saudi Arabia and embrace \u2018one of the hardest leagues\u2019 in the world.Super Eagles skipper, Ahmed Musa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/one-of-the-hardest-leagues-in-the-world-super-eagles-star-on-the-spl\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-11-29T15:50:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2019\/11\/images-2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"700\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"393\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"alico\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"alico\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/one-of-the-hardest-leagues-in-the-world-super-eagles-star-on-the-spl#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/one-of-the-hardest-leagues-in-the-world-super-eagles-star-on-the-spl\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"alico\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/50afd2ef4f0e900bd0a176404a8484a7\"},\"headline\":\"\u201cOne Of The Hardest Leagues In The World\u201d \u2013 Super Eagles Star on The SPL\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-11-29T15:50:59+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/one-of-the-hardest-leagues-in-the-world-super-eagles-star-on-the-spl\"},\"wordCount\":353,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/one-of-the-hardest-leagues-in-the-world-super-eagles-star-on-the-spl#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2019\/11\/images-2.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Football in Nigeria\",\"Nigeria football league\",\"Nigerian sports\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/one-of-the-hardest-leagues-in-the-world-super-eagles-star-on-the-spl#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/one-of-the-hardest-leagues-in-the-world-super-eagles-star-on-the-spl\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/one-of-the-hardest-leagues-in-the-world-super-eagles-star-on-the-spl\",\"name\":\"\u201cOne Of The Hardest Leagues In The World\u201d \u2013 Super Eagles Star on The SPL - 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