The Super Eagles of Nigeria finish 2024 as the 44th-best team in the world, per the latest FIFA ranking — the lowest they have ended a year since 2018.
And yet the very first ranking of the year, back in February, had them up in 28th, which is as high as the Super Eagles have been post-2013.
That swing, however, is a fair reflection of Nigeria's wildly contrasting fortunes in a year they began with a substantive manager and are concluding without one.
Here is a look at the Nigerian men's national team's good, bad, and ugly bits as 2024 rolls to its conclusion.
Super Eagles in 2024: The good
The highlight of the Super Eagles’ year came, without a doubt, at the 2024 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), where they advanced all the way to the final.
Hopes were not very high when Jose Peseiro and his charges departed for the showpiece in the Ivory Coast, as the side had lost their only preparatory game to Guinea and failed to win either of their preceding two matches.
And while Nigeria took a decent tally of seven points from nine in the group stage, Peseiro preferred to have his team keep its foot more on the brake than on the accelerator.
It appeared as though Nigeria were set up to do just enough to win, although knockout stage victories over rivals Cameroon and South Africa upped the tempo somewhat.
In the end, though, a second meeting with the hosts — who they beat in the group stage — proved a bridge too far, with the Elephants winning 2-1 and lifting a third title to draw level with Nigeria's own haul.
Super Eagles in 2024: The bad
It was the Central African Republic (CAR) in 2021, Guinea-Bissau in 2023, and this year — in the final game of the calendar — Rwanda took its turn as the latest minnow to travel to Nigeria, stun the Super Eagles, and walk away with all the spoils.
That 2-1 defeat was not itself costly in the final analysis, with Nigeria having already sealed qualification for next year's AFCON, but each new defeat of this nature chips away at the team's sense of formidableness, leaving behind a dented fear factor and punctured national pride.
Oh, and — for those into trivia — that loss to Rwanda also marks the fifth time in a row Nigeria have failed to win their last game of the year.
Super Eagles in 2024: The ugly
Well, that is pretty obvious, isn't it?
Nigeria kicked off their 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification campaign poorly enough in November last year, being held by Lesotho and Zimbabwe. Worryingly, however, their quest to recover from that underwhelming start by clawing back points in this year's pair of qualifiers failed, causing a further dwindling of their hopes.
First, they were held at home by South Africa on June 7, before losing away to neighbours Benin days later, sinking Austin Eguavoen's team even deeper.
As it stands, the three-time African champions sit just above bottom side Zimbabwe and four points off leaders Rwanda, and needing quite the turnaround — if not a minor miracle — to get back on track.
They will have six games with which to achieve that in 2025 — all versus teams Nigeria have not prevailed against in their most recent encounters — and, having missed out on the last World Cup, the Super Eagles cannot afford to skip another.
