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Getty Images<\/p>\nAbu Bakar Yasinand<\/p>\n
Naomi Clarke,BBC Newsbeat<\/p>\n
Getty Images<\/p>\n
The Fulham midfielder will represent his home country Nigeria in the competition<\/p>\n
He’s played on some of the biggest stages in the world in the Premier League, but Alex Iwobi believes the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) is a “special” experience. <\/p>\n
The tournament will see 24 teams battling for the continental crown across the next couple of weeks. <\/p>\n
Fulham midfielder Iwobi will represent his home country of Nigeria in the competition, where they will be hoping to clinch the title after missing out in a 2-1 loss to Ivory Coast in 2023’s final.<\/p>\n
“With Afcon, you get to celebrate Africa through football,” he tells BBC Newsbeat. <\/p>\n
“You get to see different cultures, you get to see how different people dress, how people from Nigeria, the way we walk into the changing rooms.<\/p>\n
“When some of the other countries walk into the changing rooms, we play music, so we’re celebrating our music through that as well.”<\/p>\n
Nigeria will be hoping to redeem themselves after failing to qualify for a second successive World Cup. <\/p>\n
Iwobi says it was a “big disappointment”, but the team will be using it to fuel them in the Afcon tournament.<\/p>\n
“We owe it to ourselves to make it right, and there’s no better way from the last Afcon to improve (than) just to win this one,” the 29-year-old says. <\/p>\n
Afcon is typically held every two years and this time Morocco is hosting. <\/p>\n
Nigeria have won the competition three times over the years, the last being back in 2013. <\/p>\n
Their most recent loss to Ivory Coast is still prominent in Iwobi’s mind as he says it “shattered” their dreams. <\/p>\n
However, he feels the moment was “written” for striker S\u00e9bastien Haller, who scored the winning goal after overcoming testicular cancer. <\/a><\/p>\n “It was a tough loss, but you give credit when credit due, they deserved it,” Iwobi says.<\/p>\n “But it’s also fuelled us and we’ve been working hard to get into the Afcon again and, hopefully, this is our story.”<\/p>\n Alex Iwobi made his debut for Nigeria’s national team in 2015<\/p>\n The Fulham midfielder was born in Lagos, but moved to London as a child. His talent was spotted early and he was selected to represent England up to under-18 level.<\/p>\n After many years with the Three Lions, he made his debut for Nigeria’s national team in 2015 as he says he felt more “at home” with the team.<\/p>\n “England treated me with a lot of respect and they loved me,” he says. “But at the same time, I felt more of a connection with my roots in Nigeria.”<\/p>\n He has since made 91 appearances, making him the fourth most capped player for the Nigerian Super Eagles. <\/p>\n Iwobi says he never thought he would play for Arsenal, Fulham, or Nigeria growing up, but he is “honoured and grateful” for his achievements. <\/p>\n Ademola Lookman, Calvin Bassey and Iwobi’s school friend Ola Aina are also among the players on the Nigerian national team who were not raised in the country.<\/p>\n They have been affectionately nicknamed the “innit boys”, and Iwobi hopes they have helped open the door for others to represent their home country. <\/p>\n “You’re Nigerian at the end of the day and you will get loved regardless,” he says.<\/p>\n Iwobi says he never thought we would play for Arsenal, Fulham, or Nigeria in his career<\/p>\n There has been debate over whether Afcon gets the respect it deserves.<\/p>\n Earlier this year, Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher caused a stir<\/a> when he suggested Afcon was not considered a “major tournament”, when discussing Mohamed Salah’s chances of winning the coveted Ballon d’Or.<\/p>\n Iwobi feels there is still more work to be done.<\/p>\n “It’s obviously getting recognised a lot more,” he says. “There’s a lot of great talents, great nations representing.<\/p>\n “In the Premier League there’s a lot of players in each team that are going to be represented so the awareness is growing, but it definitely deserves a lot more respect, in my opinion.”<\/p>\n If he wins the tournament, the Fulham player says he will be on the phone to his parents and sister straight away, while his extended family will be dancing.<\/p>\n “I’ve heard from previous people that when they win it, it’s like everything just stops, you become like a king, you’re just royalty,” he says. <\/p>\n “Just going to the final we got treated like royalty anyway, so I can’t imagine winning it.<\/p>\n “It would just be crazy, but I want to experience that.”<\/p>\n Listen to Newsbeat live<\/a> at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays – or listen back here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Abu Bakar Yasinand Naomi Clarke,BBC Newsbeat Getty Images The Fulham midfielder will represent his home country Nigeria in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197518,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-197517","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Getty](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/ca70de00-dcf8-11f0-b936-bbd75bfb2f25.jpg.webp.webp\")
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