Nigeria's elegant-looking midfielder, Joe Aribo has admitted that he needs the divine grace of God to fulfil his very promising potential; he told Nigeria Info exclusively.
Aribo, who wears the iconic jersey number '10' previously worn by Nigerian greats, such as Jay Jay Okocha, Samuel Okwraji, Muda Lawal and John Mikel Obi for the Super Eagles was himself once described as a Rolls Royce midfielder by Nigerian fans- after scoring two goals in his first two matches against Ukraine and Brazil when he made his debut in friendlies in 2019.
Although the 27-year-old is a member of Nigeria's 2023 African Cup of Nations squad, he has played a limited role and his performance in the national team has occasionally been questioned by fans who expect more of him.
He has however admitted that he needs God's blessings for him to reach the level expected of him with his huge talent.
"I can't really say anything is holding me back. For me, it's God's timing. I'm just waiting for God's blessings to just shine on me. I'm a person, I know it's just God's timing. I know my time will come and my light will shine so I'm just patiently waiting," he told Nigeria Info.
He says the Afcon training has been tough but he is enjoying being part of it.
"It's really good to be out here. We are enjoying training. Training has been tough. The managers made it tough on us. So yeah. We put in the work daily because we know what we want. So it's going very well.
"For us, we have one goal here which is to win it. We want to win it so we're going to do what we can to be able to win it," he reveals.
Aribo also reveal that having captain Ahmed Musa and Kenneth Omeruo in the Afcon squad is inspirational and very important to the goal of winning it.
"We as younger players, when we were growing up, we were watching them. So it's inspirational having them in the team. I think it's so important to have that in the team. People that have been there and have done it. And they speak to us every time. So I think it's so important to have that in the team. Its really good and like a morale boost for us having them in the team. They have been there, they have done it, they know how to do it, so for us, it's just moving 100 percent," he discloses.
Nigeria will play Angola in the quarterfinals on Friday 2nd of February.
